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Like many/most chronic diseases, prostate cancer has a familial, genetic factor strongly at play. My maternal grandfather had it; my maternal uncle had it; my dad had it; and I "had/have" it. And, I am counseling my son to the fact that he may very well have it when he reaches middle age. I wrote "had/have" because despite having the radical prostatectomy like many/most of us, we have all learned that between imperfect surgical technique by our urologist, and despite radiation therapy/proton beam therapy, perhaps ADT and other pharmaceuticals, prostate cancer seems to come back for MANY of us. I literally read here in the Mayo blog two days ago, of a guy who was cancer-free for "25 years" post-RP surgery, and now his cancer has returned. It is really depressing to know that with the statistic of "1 in 8" men will get prostate cancer, it means that SEVEN OUT OF EIGHT MEN walking around will never get it, but we are the unlucky ONE in EIGHT that did get it. That sucks.
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@rlpostrp It’s said that only 15% of prostate cancers have an inherited genetic component. With your family history of prostate cancer, have you had a genetic (germline) test? There may be other factors involved.
Not just sons. The same gene mutations related to prostate cancer can be passed to daughters, increasing the risk for breast and other cancers, as well as other solid tumor cancers to any gender (or passed from mothers to either of them).
Prostate cancer is not unlike any other disease, illness, or injury in that there can be recurrence. Both surgery and external radiation for prostate cancer have about a 33% recurrence rate - statistically equivalent.
Fortunately, with the early screening that’s available, prostate cancer has one of the lowest mortality rates of all male cancers. (Attached is data that I pulled and charted from the American Cancer Society’s website.) For me that was comforting - once diagnosed, the chance of me dying from it was low. (Unlike what happened to my older brother in August 2024 - diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died 2-1/2 months later.) I’m 14 years into my prostate cancer journey; I’m good with that.
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I always thought that having family have it doesn’t mean it’s real likely for me to get it, but somewhat likely. Then one of the specialists at a convention mention that they found that if your father or close relative like that, had it, you have more than 100% higher chance of getting it. My father died of it and I got it at 62 because my mother gave me BRCA2. My brother got it at 77 because of my father, and not having BRCA2 he got it when he was older.
I ran into so many people at the nine meetings I go to every month, that have a parent or uncle or brother that had it and now they have it and their brothers have it. It’s frustrating they can’t find a genetic reason for this, Something specific like BRCA2. Some day they will find it, and then find a way to stop it.