What is the life expectancy without treatment?
In some forms of prostate cancer, it is not possible to start active treatment immediately. This process is called “Active Surveillance” and includes check-ups that must be performed regularly so that therapy can be initiated immediately if the condition worsens. The decision should only be made after careful information and detailed discussion with the treating physician.
The idea behind this is that there are also less aggressive variants of prostate cancer that do not require immediate treatment, so that the person affected is not over-therapied. However, close monitoring is necessary in order to provide the patient with adequate treatment if the condition worsens. If the affected person has a very advanced tumor for which no curative treatment is possible, there is the possibility to start a palliative therapy.
In this case the patient’s quality of life is improved by alleviating the symptoms. Complaints such as pain, depression or exhaustion are reduced as much as possible in palliative treatment. However, the prostate carcinoma often grows quite slowly and not every patient has to expect a reduction in life expectancy.
There are numerous indications that there are significantly more undiagnosed prostate cancer patients who do not know about the tumor and do not die from it. The Center for Cancer Registry Data of the Robert Koch Institute reports a relative 5-year survival rate of 91% and a relative 10-year survival rate of 90% of all prostate cancer patients, while by comparison, half of all patients with cancer of the mouth and throat do not survive for 5 years and only slightly more than one third are still alive after 10 years (data from 2014). This shows that life expectancy with prostate cancer (even without active measures) is generally much better than with other types of cancer.
