My illness has returned

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. If caught early, treatment is often successful. But what to do if the disease, once overcome, returns?

Nowadays, prostate cancer is no longer as much of a threat as it was years ago. Almost 100% of men with a low- or intermediate-risk tumour, survive for 5 years after diagnosis. About 91% of patients survive for more than 10 years, and 76% of men survive for more than 15 years. This relatively good prognosis is due, among other things, to the fact that 9 out of 10 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed at a stage when the cancer cells are located only in the prostate or have only penetrated nearby surrounding tissues. Of the remaining 10% who have already metastasised to more distant tissues, less than a third have a five-year survival prospect.

Regular checkups are a must

After successful treatment for prostate cancer, doctors will check at regular intervals to see if the disease returns. You will be invited for regular check-ups and blood tests to check your PSA levels. If your PSA level starts to rise, further tests will follow to rule out or confirm the return of the cancer.

Negative effects

• What factors affect the likelihood of prostate cancer returning?
• Lymph node involvement. – Men whose tumor has spread to the lymph nodes are more likely to have a return of the disease.
• Tumour size – basically, the larger the tumour, the greater the chance of disease recurrence.
• Gleason score – this assesses the level of cellular changes in the cancer cells. A high score means a worse prognosis.
• Spread in the body – if metastases are already present in the patient’s body to surrounding or distant tissues, this is no longer curative treatment to cure the patient, but palliative treatment to maintain the patient’s quality of life

How to defend yourself?

Several factors determine which treatment to choose for disease recurrence. These include what treatment you have had before, the extent of the tumour, your age or other concurrent illnesses. The spectrum of treatments is similar to that for the underlying disease. Regular medical check-ups remain the most important way to prevent prostate cancer from returning.