How long for PC to develop?

"Early prostate cancer usually causes no symptoms. Sometimes, however, prostate cancer does cause symptoms, often similar to those of diseases such as benign prostatic hyperplasia. These include frequent urination, nocturia (increased urination at night), difficulty starting and maintaining a steady stream of urine, hematuria (blood in the urine), and dysuria (painful urination).

about a third of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer have one or more such symptoms, while two thirds have no symptoms."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostate_cancer

It takes many years for most cancers to develop. My uro says mine easily started 15-20 years before I was diagnosed. Dr Myers and others contend that 50% of men age 50 have blood borne PCa that is detectable, yet most men are not diagnosed until they are in their mid 60s and into their 70s.

My wife has had two unrelated bouts with breast cancer and both her med-oncs said it takes at least 15 years to get to the detectable stage for most women. This is in line with the information and charts in the definitave book on breast cancer by Dr. Susan Love. She is to breast cancer what Dr. Patrick Walsh has been to PCa.

There are other cancers that develop much more quickly, especially those of childhood and young adults and some blood cancers.

JNF, zufus, minimum 15 yrs...wow. Lots of opportunity for detection there, must find more accurate diagnostic imaging tools or tests.

It takes about 41 doublings for a cancer from the time the first cell is affected to death. At 30 doublings the cancer is about the size of a pin (a pin head contains over a billion cells) and usually not detectable.
Each cancer has its own DNA characteristics which include its growth rate and its ability to metastasize. PSA doubling time is a good indicator of growth rate and usually remains fairly consistent through the life of the tumor. PSA doubling time will change once the cancer escapes into other areas of the body as we are now dealing with multiple tumors growing at different rates. doubling times greater than 3 years are usually not harmful as they are truly slow growing. Any detectable prostate cancer has been growing for at least two decades.
This is the normal course for most cancers. There are always rare exceptions in which cancers grow much faster and others in which cancers disappear on their own. There are still others in which the cancer simply quits growing at some point. The difference in indolent cancer and aggressive cancer is the rate of growth and the ability to metastasize.

davidg, 5mm is a very small tumor, perhaps it would have taken 10-15yrs till it caused you symptoms (according to what everyone is saying)? Dad was not monitoring PSA, still not encouraged-talked about where he lives.

John T, 2 decades! Possibly. I have seen you have written before about each cancer having its genetic characteristics, but I do believe some of the genes can be turned on-off with the passage of time, or treatment (e.g. mutations that develop to resist taxotere), or even lifestyle choices.

that's the plan...

no need to worry about your husband. I'm told I was definitely not the norm. Is he doing PSA exams meanwhile?

no harm in having the test. Specially when you're so informed on this issue and wouldn't fall in a potential trap of over treatment. It's just the creation of a baseline.

Similar to mine. The G4 shows how aggressive things can get in a fairly short period.