Life Expectancy For Metastatic Prostate Cancer

What Are Next Steps

Bone metastasis have a profound effect on the long-term outlook for prostate cancer. But its important to remember that the numbers are only statistics.

The good news is that life expectancy for advanced prostate cancer continues to increase. New treatments and therapies offer both longer life and better quality of life. Speak to your doctor about your treatment options and long-term outlook.

Everyones cancer experience is different. You may find support through sharing your treatment plan with friends and family. Or you can turn to local community groups or online forums like Male Care for advice and reassurance.

Stage 4 Cancer Treatments

Stage 4 cancer has the highest mortality rate. Therefore, many people who have stage 4 cancer or know their family or friend has one, have already given up. They only see the people with this cancer as those who only wait for the end of their life.

The truth is the opposite. Thanks to medical sciences growth, nowadays, many data and tests show a patient with stage 4 cancer is treatable and even curable. As mentioned earlier, there are two purposes of the treatment. It is either to stop the growth and kill the cancer cell or to control the growth and wait for the end.

Regardless of the purposes, the treatment for cancer in stage 4 is similar. Here, we have the examples of the standard treatment for stage 4 cancer:

· Chemotherapy is said to be the safest method to treat stage 4 cancer. However, if cancer has spread extensively, this treatment could risk affecting other organs, which can cause another health problem for the patient.

· Radiation therapy this treatment is also suitable for cancer that hasnt spread too much. The doctor uses this treatment to reduce the size of the cancer cell and relieve the symptoms.

· Immunotherapy this method uses the natural immune system of the patients body to fight the cancer cell. It has a high success rate for low-grade cancer cells.

· Surgery remove the cancer cell or tumor and the problem is gone. Of course, it is only doable for cancer in the earlier stage of metastasis.

Bone Pain In Prostate Cancer

Many advanced prostate cancer patients often suffer from bone pain that adversely affect quality of life. The management of pain or other cancer related functional impairment is integral part of palliative care. Palliative management can include analgesics, glucocorticoids, palliative chemotherapy, radioisotopes or radiotherapy.

Radioisotopes that selectively concentrate in bone lesions are approved for the palliative treatment of painful bone metastases. The treatment is of more value in patients with multiple metastases . The radioisotopes have been found to reduce the need for opioid painkillers in such patients.

EBRT is effective in painful bone lesions in advanced prostate cancer patients but not an ideal option if there are multiple lesions at different sites. The lesions in multiple sites will progress after EBRT in one site and pain will reappear in a short time afterwards, unless other systemic therapies are initiated to control the disease process. Read more on EBRT under prostate cancer treatments.

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New Diagnosis: Where Do I Start

You are not alone. The good news is that most prostate cancers are slow-growing and that with early detection and treatment, it can be cured. Increasing your knowledge by reviewing sections such as Coping with cancer, Choosing your treatment as well as other areas of the web site helps relieve the stress and helps make decisions clearer.

Over the last 12 months, approximately 4,600 Quebecers were diagnosed with prostate cancer. This represents an average of 12 men per day. You are definitely not alone in your fight against prostate cancer. The good news is that we know most prostate cancers are slow-growing, which means that with early detection and treatment, it can even be cured.

Once diagnosed, men will go through understandable and normal reactions, such as fear, denial, anger, helplessness and feeling of loss of control over their life. Once reality sets in, a constructive way to deal with the disease is to learn as much as you can about it. Increasing your knowledge about prostate cancer helps relieve the natural fear of the unknown, and makes the decision-making process easier.

Frequently Asked Questions

Click here for the full list of prostate cancer-related FAQs.

Questions about survival

Talk to your doctor about your prognosis. A prognosis depends on many factors, including:

• how the cancer responds to treatment

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Ethics Approval And Consent To Participate

As the data used was extracted from SEER dataset , Ethics approval and Consent to participate could be checked in SEER. We were permitted to have Internet access after our signed data-use agreement was approved by the SEER administration . The date collected from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine was approved by the Ethics Committee of Zhejiang University .

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Overview. Following clinical evaluation of rectal cancer, the cancer is referred to as Stage IV rectal cancer if the final evaluation shows that the cancer has spread to distant locations in the body, which may include the liver, lungs, bones, or other sites. A variety of factors ultimately influence a patient’s decision to receive treatment. Malignant Ascites LifeExpectancy The survival rate of patient varies according to the underlying cause. There is very low survival rate in case of gastrointestinal tract cancer. Patient having malignant ascites due to pancreatic cancer may survive for almost 1.4 months. Same is the survival rate in case of gastric carcinoma. I had Breast Cancer that has spread to the bones. I have a monthly treatment of Zometa and Faslodex . I was diagnosed Oct. 31, 2008. I had a mastectomy on my left breast followed by chemo which did not work and no radiation. I have been on this treatment for 4 1/2 years and the bone cancer has been stable.

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Stage IV Cancer Life Expectancy. The five-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer that has spread to distant organs is 28%. This means about 28% of the patients with stage 4 prostate cancer will live for five years. According to.

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What Are The Symptoms Of Metastatic Cancer

Some people will have minimal or no symptoms of metastatic cancer. If symptoms are present, theyre based on the location of the metastasis.

Bone metastasis

Bone metastasis may or may not cause pain. The first sign of bone metastasis is bone breakage after a minor injury or no injury. Severe back pain accompanied by leg numbness or difficulty with bowel or bladder control must be evaluated immediately.

Brain metastasis

If a tumor has metastasized to the brain, symptoms may include headache, dizziness, visual problems, speech problems, nausea, difficulty walking or confusion.

Lung metastasis

Cancer symptoms of lung metastasis are usually very vague. This is because they can be similar to symptoms of other health conditions. Warning signs may include a cough , coughing up blood, chest pain or shortness of breath.

Liver metastasis

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Treatment Options Under Clinical Evaluation

Treatment options under clinical evaluation for patients with prostate cancer include the following:

Cryosurgery

Cryosurgery, or cryotherapy, is under evaluation for the treatment of localized prostate cancer. It is a surgical technique that involves destruction of prostate cancer cells by intermittent freezing of the prostate with cryoprobes, followed by thawing. There is limited evidence regarding its efficacy and safety compared with standard prostatectomy and radiation therapy, and the technique is evolving in an attempt to reduce local toxicity and normal tissue damage. The quality of evidence on efficacy is low, currently limited to case series of relatively small size, short follow-up, and surrogate outcomes of efficacy.

Serious toxic effects associated with cryosurgery include bladder outlet injury, urinary incontinence, sexual impotence, and rectal injury. Impotence is common, ranging from about 47% to 100%.

The frequency of other side effects and the probability of cancer control at 5 years follow-up have varied among reporting centers, and series are small compared with surgery and radiation therapy. Other major complications include urethral sloughing, urinary fistula or stricture, and bladder neck obstruction.

Proton-beam therapy

Vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy using a photosensitizing agent has been tested in men with low-risk prostate cancer.

Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy

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An Overview Of Liver Cancer

Liver cancer is often referred to as Hepatoma or Hepatocellular Carcinoma . Liver cancer is categorized into stages based on its intensity, and the 4th stage is advanced of them all. In this stage, cancer has begun to spread to the nearby lymph nodes and or the distant lymph nodes and organs. Liver cancer cases are comparatively fewer and are more common in men than in women.

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What Is The Survival Rate Of Stage 4 Prostate Cancer

Doctors use the term stage to characterize the characteristics of the original tumor itself, such as its size and how far prostate cancer has spread when it is discovered, as they do with all malignancies.

Staging systems are difficult to understand. Most malignancies, including prostate cancer, are staged using three different elements of tumor growth and dissemination. The TNM system stands for tumor, nodes, and metastasis:

• T, for tumor describes the size of the main area of prostate cancer.
• N, for nodes, describes whether prostate cancer has spread to any lymph nodes, and how many and in what locations.
• M, for metastasis, means distant spread of prostate cancer, for example, to the bones or liver.

The TNM approach allows each mans prostate cancer to be characterized in depth and compared to the prostate cancers of other men. Doctors utilize this information to conduct research and make treatment decisions.

However, in terms of prostate cancer survival statistics, the staging method is straightforward. As previously stated, males with prostate cancer can be split into two groups in terms of survival rates:

• Men with prostate cancer that is localized to the prostate or just nearby.

• Prostate cancer has a high long-term survival percentage in these men. Almost all men will live for more than five years after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, and many will live for much longer.

• Men whose prostate cancer has spread to distant areas, like their bones.

Stage 4 Prostate Cancer Prognosis

Doctors need to know how far the cancer has advanced, or its stage, in order to choose the best treatment. A pathologist, a specialist who specializes in studying cells obtained from a prostate biopsy, will provide two starting points: the cancers grade and Gleason score.

• Cancer grade: When the pathologist looks at prostate cancer cells, the most common type of cells will get a grade of 3 to 5. The area of cancer cells in the prostate will also be graded. The higher the grade, the more abnormal the cells.
• Gleason score: The two grades will be added together to get a Gleason score. This score tells doctors how likely the cancer is to grow and spread.

After a biopsy reveals prostate cancer, the patient may be subjected to additional testing to determine whether the disease has spread to other regions of the body via the blood or lymph nodes. These are typically imaging examinations, such as a bone scan, positron emission tomography scan, or computed tomography scan.

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Prognosis And Survival For Prostate Cancer

If you have prostate cancer, you may have questions about your prognosis. A prognosis is the doctors best estimate of how cancer will affect someone and how it will respond to treatment. Prognosis and survival depend on many factors. Only a doctor familiar with your medical history, the type and stage and other features of the cancer, the treatments chosen and the response to treatment can put all of this information together with survival statistics to arrive at a prognosis.

A prognostic factor is an aspect of the cancer or a characteristic of the person that the doctor will consider when making a prognosis. A predictive factor influences how a cancer will respond to a certain treatment. Prognostic and predictive factors are often discussed together. They both play a part in deciding on a treatment plan and a prognosis.

The following are prognostic and predictive factors for prostate cancer.

Relative Survival By Stage At Diagnosis

Introduction:

This measure comprises national data on relative survival by stage at diagnosis for prostate cancer.

Stage at diagnosis indicates the extent to which a cancer has spread at diagnosis. It is an important prognostic factor for cancer outcomes. It also provides contextual information for interpreting cancer outcomes, including survival, at a population level.1

Relative survival refers to the probability of being alive for a given amount of time after diagnosis, compared with survival of the general population. Observed survival refers to the overall proportion of people who are alive following a specified amount of time after diagnosis of cancer. In this report, survival refers to relative survival unless otherwise stated. Examining survival by stage at diagnosis provides insights into how survival outcomes differ depending on extent of cancer spread at diagnosis.

To provide a better understanding of cancer stage at diagnosis at the population-level, Business Rules were developed to collect national data on Registry-derived stage at diagnosis using data sources that are routinely accessible to all population-based cancer registries. RD-stage is defined for invasive tumours only. More information on the capture and distribution of RD-stage at diagnosis can be accessed through the following measures:

• Distribution of cancer stage

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Treatments To Help Manage Symptoms

Advanced prostate cancer can cause symptoms, such as bone pain. Speak to your doctor or nurse if you have symptoms there are treatments available to help manage them. The treatments above may help to delay or relieve some symptoms. There are also specific treatments to help manage symptoms you may hear these called palliative treatments. They include:

This is the team of health professionals involved in your care. It is likely to include:

• a specialist nurse

Types Of Cancers That Are More Likely To Go Undetected

Some cancers are more easily detected than others. For example, certain types of skin cancer can be diagnosed initially just by visual inspection though a biopsy is necessary to confirm the diagnosis.

But other cancers can form and grow undetected for 10 years or more, as one study found, making diagnosis and treatment that much more difficult.

This table provides an overview of common cancers that often display little or no symptoms early on, and how theyre typically detected and diagnosed:

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Stages Of Prostate Cancer

In order to determine the stage of a patients prostate cancer, most doctors start by using the TNM staging system, which helps describe different aspects of the cancers growth.

• T the T category measures the size and extent of the Tumor
• N the N category measures whether and how far the cancer has spread to the Lymph Nodes
• M the M category whether the cancer has spread to other organs in the body (a process called Metastasis

The score for each of these categories is determined based on a pre-determined set of criteria. Your doctor cannot feel or see the tumor with a score of T1. A score of T3 means that the tumor has begun to grow outside of the prostate.

After calculating the TNM categories, doctors will combine the TNM score with the patients Gleason score and PSA levels assigning of a specific stage to the patients cancer.

Prostate cancer prognosis and survival rates can help give patients an idea of their chances of surviving the disease based on the stage and time of diagnosis. While some patients may find this information helpful, others may not want to know.

Staging And Grading For Stage 4 Cancer

Most cancers are staged using some form of the TNM system. Doctors may also use the TNM system to help determine the extent of certain cancers in each stage. The TNM system stands for:

• T , or the size of the original tumor
• N , or whether the cancer is present in the lymph nodes
• M , or whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body

Not all cancers are staged using the TNM system, though. Some cancers, especially liquid cancers, are staged through different established protocols. The Binet and Rai systems, for example, are used to stage certain types of leukemia. Female reproductive system cancers, such as cervical cancer, are staged with a separate staging system created by the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics .

As your care team gathers information about your cancer for the purposes of staging, they may need to order several tests, including:

• Computed tomography scans

Your care team may likely also need to perform a biopsy, a procedure that involves removing a sample of cells and analyzing it for signs of cancer. Imaging scans may be able to tell your care team where your cancer is, but looking at the cancer cells specifically tell them how fast they are likely to growor what grade they are.

Grading is different from staging and is done for most, but not all, cancers.

The grade of your cancer is part of how your cancer care team stages your cancer and determines your prognosis, or outlook.

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