The prognosis is the prediction of how will the cancer develop and what are the chances for a person to recover after being affected by such a malignant medical condition.

Each year, around the world, one in six men is diagnosed with a prostate cancer. This diagnose can be achieved only with the help of the routinely screening tests and the prostate biopsy.

The screening tests are recommended especially for men over forty because at this age their body will also experience certain changes, especially at the hormonal level. Cancer and other prostate disorders and diseases such as prostatitis and the benign prostatic hyperplasia are caused mainly by the hormonal unbalances reported by men over forty; at this age all men will experience what we all know as the “male menopause” or ‘andropause” or a decrease of the level of testosterone, the male specific hormone responsible for the well functioning of the organism and the sexual activity.



The screening tests include the digital rectal exam which is an unpleasant examination done by inserting a gloved finger into the rectum to palpate the size of the prostate gland or to feel any lumps developed on its surface; the prostate specific antigen blood test is a tumor and biological marker which indicates the level of the prostate specific antigen, in normal circumstances being low. These tests have their flaws and don’t exactly indicate the existence of a malignant tumor but rather doctors will have to interpret the obtained results and determine if a further medical investigation is needed or not.

The prostate biopsy and the prostate mapping, or even the newer detection method known as the nomogram, are to be used for obtaining an accurate diagnose. The grading and staging processes determine the characteristics of the identified cancer and help with the prescribing of a correct treatment.

There are two major prognosis for the outcome of the prostate cancer: doctors expect the treatment to be challenging or they expect the patient to respond well to the treatment.

The cancer survival statistics or survival rates will identify the percentage of patients who survive a certain type of cancer for a determined amount of time and usually for the prostate cancer there is a five year survival rate established after receiving the initial diagnose, even though the cancer is in its early or late stages.

If the cancer is detected early the survival rates or curing rates are of about ninety eight percent, especially since the malignant tumors grown slowly, doubling their size once every four years.

If an early stage cancer had recurred the hormone treatment can prolong survival for years, but unfortunately, in most cases the tumor had already spread to far distance regions of the body.



The survival rates can be prolonged even if the cancer is locally advanced and had already infected the nearby tissues and organs but when the cancer is metastatized the cure rates suddenly drop very low and the average survival time is one to three years, in some cases the patients will die because of some other health complications or causes.

Doctors will refrain of using grand words such as completely cured when referring to a disease such as cancer because the possibility of cancer recurrence will always remain.

The lifetime probability of developing a prostate cancer is about sixteen percent and the survival rate of ten years is of about ninety three percent while the fifteen year survival rate is of seventy seven percent, but only if the cancer is in its early stages; for the severe forms of prostate cancer the risk of dying is higher so the chances of survival are rather pessimistic. The survival rates tend to stabilize after fifteen years.

The factors blamed for the apparition of cancer are various and it all depends on general characteristics such as age, race, genetic inheritance or the working environment; the fact is that each type of cancer is unique or rather say each cancer is unique even if you are talking about the same type because in different individuals similar cancers can develop differently at different stages in different periods of time. This is one of the reasons why the prognosis can be so difficult.

In America, only the lung cancer causes more deaths than the prostate cancer, so prescribing the right treatment is the best method to delay or even stop the spreading process.