My memory is vague on this. I was dx. 12/2009 (G4+3). Failed surgery and by about 3/2011 failed SRT. I recall reading at that time that the average life expectancy was 6 years. I was about 65 years old. That was upsetting, but it gave me a goal and helped my determination. Nowadays we would never say that. We have many bullets these days. My question: was that even true at that time? I can't find any such statistics. Imight be "misremembering."

Mel

Mel -

Maybe this will help.

The answer to your question seems to be finding out what the accepted PCa survival prognosis was around 2011.

A way to get to that information would be to consult medical articles on the topic from that date, 2011, or even earlier, to see what the expert thinking was at that time.

This can be done in Google (must be in Google) by

1. searching (just like this):

prostate cancer survival rate before:2012

2. results are articles that are on that topic and from before 2012 (therefore 2011 or earlier). (One can also tailor the search time period, such as

after:2000 before:2012

and such, to narrow the time period).

For example, here's an article retrieved from 2006 that talks about " ... survival probability in men with clinically localized prostate cancer":

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17169648/

that is, the thinking in 2006.

Skimming the other results from using the above search should retrieve similar articles from back then.

Not sure if this applies but it's a positive view on treatment overall.
My brother had non-Hodgkens lymphoma in 1997 it had invaded the entire abdomen.
After treatment he survived until 2015 when sadly he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
He survived that for 3 years and his quality of life was not bad until the last 3 days.
With Optivo he may have gotten another 3 months but had enough of treatment.
So in some ways he beat the odds thanks to medical treatment which continues to update and amaze.
With biotech and gene working it's only going to get better.

Glen

Life Expectancy After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Prostate cancer is often diagnosed early, making the long-term prognosis quite encouraging. According to the American Cancer Society, the below figures represent a patient’s chance of survival compared to those without prostate cancer. Keep in mind that these numbers represent all stages of prostate cancer, which means it will not accurately depict an individual’s prognosis.

5-year relative survival rate of nearly 100 percent%
10-year relative survival rate of 98%
15-year relative survival rate of 95%

So what do you do with this information? You can die from all sorts of causes in 15 years and the term "relative survival" is used in the numbers. What is average life expectancy of a male who is 65? about 18 years or 83 so you may be 95% of that with prostate cancer that is not already metastatic. Should you expect to live to 95 with PCa? Numbers say no but don't tell my Dad who turns 95 this week with PCa in his young 70's and recurrence in his late 80's.