My Gleason score is 7 - 3+4. How long can I live without treatment?

Don’t forget the L word….LUCK!

Cancer cell type? Grade? There are many other factors to consider other than Gleason score. Most side effects aren't that horrible.

My Gleason score was 3+4in one core. I immediately decided on removal. The post pathology report showed my core was actually 4+5. So my biopsy seems to be inaccurate. Also after my RP I had zero incontinence issues. My first 4 PSA tests have come back < 0.01. Hope this helps with your decision. Best of luck.

Only saw one post from hunter1877. Can you give other info ie
Psa, tumor size, tumor location (is it abutting capsule?), %cores with cancer?
I am 3+4, psa is 13, tumor size 2.1 cm and abuts capsule, 6of 19 cores with cancer all from tumor.
Trying to decide plan, am 78.

That was the correct decision for me. Just read where these poor guys end up and then read what the chance it will kill you (pretty low). I have gone 13 years with 3+4, I do annual MRIs and regular PSA. Yes it has grown but not much, I was 50 when this started and I have had a great 13 years no facing all the horrible things you can read here. I think a lot of men are scared by the C word or get pressured into treatment that alter their life permanently ultimately face years of pain and further medical treatments. Read Read Read and assume your life will be like those sad stories. No thanks, quality of life over lifetime of regret.

Paul, I'm no doc, but I have stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer which I've been fighting for a decade. Chemo was a little tough, but other treatments, surgery, etc. weren't bad. Your quality of life will be infinitely better with treatments rather than just withering away. There are many options available including standard protocol and experimental. It's 2024, not 1924.

A little background. My PSA had been between 2.3 and 2.9 for five years up and down between those numbers. The only reason I got treated and even was concerned was my female endocrinologist had me do a full PSA test unlike my GP. The full test is a PSA, a PSA free, and a PSA free percentage and my % was low. My GP would not order a at home urine test that Medicare pays for even though I did all the research including giving him the phone number to call. I cut him off and no longer see him. I went to Mayo Phoenix and my MRI showed a 7mm lesion which is very small. I then had a transperineally 30 core fusion guided biopsy. I have a 120-gram prostate which is why so many cores. I had three positive cores all from the area of the lesion. Two were 4-3 and one 3-4. I had another lab examine my cores and they came back one 4-3 and two 3-4. If you do research the pathologists have changed the grading system a few years ago like grade inflation in college so I was very suspect of the results. My oncologist at my first meeting with him wanted to jab me with six months of Lupron with 28 radiation treatments. I am unique in that I have been in testosterone replacement since 2008 and when I don't apply my Androgel I go castrate in a week thanks to the test my endocrinologist and I had done in the past. He didn't believe me, and I didn't take the shot. As to the 28 radiation treatments I went to a Cyber Knife facility in Phoenix that does the SRBT 5 radiation treatments which is now just as effective as 28 or 40 because evidently prostate cancer cells can't handle the 5 heavy doses of Proton radiation. My testosterone was at 12 ng/dl for eight months and he tested me three times which is lower than the Lupron literature promises. When I told him I was going to go elsewhere for the five treatments he all of a sudden said "we can do 5" so I stayed at Mayo and did 5 SRBT Proton treatment, so far so good as my first three PSA's have been undetectable. I go Monday for a fourth PSA which is at 17 months post radiation. I am back on my testosterone gel and feeling fine. Had some minor urinary leakage 310 days after radiation that Kegels fixed. Any more questions just ask.

Hello, I am 72 and this diagnosed with gleason 4+3=7. What treatment did you get, if any? I am considering no treatment for quality of life issues. Thank you, Paul

Totally with you on self advocacy.

Purchase Dr Patrick Walsh's 5th Edition book : " Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer " . It will be the best mooney you ever spent . It will educate you A to Z about prostate cancer , Testing , what the tests mean , Different Treatments , Surgery , Radiation , Focal Therapies and on and on
You have to be your own advocate -- but with the self education plus help from this forum members .