The prostate cancer is a common type of cancer affecting the male population from all around the world; each year one in six men will get to be diagnosed with a prostate cancer while in America only the lung cancer causes more deaths than prostate cancer.

The lifetime probability to develop a prostate cancer is of about sixteen percent and usually the survival rates tend to stabilize after a period of fifteen years. The chances of ten year survival rate are of about ninety three percent while the ones for the fifteen year survival rate are of seventy seven percent.

Since there are no early symptoms to make a prostate cancer noticeable in its first stages, doctors recommend the routinely screening tests and the prostate biopsy.



The screening tests involve a digital rectal exam, which is quite unpleasant but it’s the best method for physicians to determine any abnormal size of the prostate or the existence of a hardness or lump on the surface of the prostate; the prostate specific antigen blood tests are considered a tumor marker and even though they don’t determine whether a tumor exists or not, they indicate the level of the prostate specific antigen which in normal conditions should be low. Doctors will have to interpret the obtained screening results and decide if a medical investigation should be continued or not.

If any abnormality is detected, the prostate biopsy would be the best method to give an accurate diagnose; this biopsy can be complemented by a new method of detection, the prostate mapping or even the nomogram. If cancer is diagnosed, the next step will be its grading and staging, relevant for the prescribing of a future and correct treatment.

The prognosis of the prostate cancer can be very difficult because each cancer is unique and that basically means that for each patient the same type of cancer can develop at different stages in different periods of time with different consequences.

The progression of a prostate cancer can be different depending on each patient’s medical characteristics; some factors such as age, race, genetic inheritance and the working environment are to be blamed for the evolution and apparition of a prostate cancer.

The spreading process is done through the lymph system and bloodstream once the cancerous cells have escaped from the prostate capsule; the malignant tumor, in the first stages, being confined in the prostate, will spread to far distance regions of the body affecting vital organs such as the live, the bone system or the brain once it becomes locally advanced or metastatic.

According to the TNM, tumor, nodes and metastatic, staging system or its alternative, the Whitmore-Jewett staging system, the prostate cancer has four stages, the last one or stage IV or D being the stage of the metastatic cancer. In this stage the cancer had already invaded the surrounding tissues and organs but also some other distanced regions of the organism.



As I’ve mentioned before, the prognosis is the prediction or determining what are the chances of survival or for a person to recover after being affected and how will the cancer evolve in the next period of time after its initial diagnose.

The prognosis depends very much on the cancer survival rates or statistics which identify the percentage of patients who survive a certain type of cancer for a determined amount of time; there is an established survival rate of five years after the initial diagnose and usually, if is detected yearly the chances of five year survival are of about ninety eight percent because of its slow growth, a malignant tumor doubling its size once every four years.

The prognosis becomes challenging when the cancer is locally advanced but with a right treatment the chances of surviving can be prolonged. Unfortunately, these chances drop very low if a cancer is metastatic and the average survival time is one to three years, sometimes patients will die because of some other health complications or causes. If an early cancer had recurred, the hormone therapy is one treatment option to help prolong the survival years but in most of the cases a recurred cancer had already infected the surrounding or far distanced areas of the body.

The two major prognosis for the outcome of the prostate cancer are: the patient will respond well to the treatment or the treatment will prove to be challenging.