Some prostate cancers are very slow-growing and never need treatment. Others are extremely aggressive and can be fatal within a matter of months after they are diagnosed. Of critical importance is knowing which kind of cancer it is, and the physicians at the Prostate Cancer Multidisciplinary Clinic have the expert experience and most advanced techniques to make that determination.

In general, the earlier prostate cancer is caught, the more likely it is for a man to get successful treatment and remain disease-free. The overall prognosis for prostate cancer is among the best of all cancers.

It’s important to keep in mind that survival rates and likelihood of recurrence are based on averages and won’t necessarily reflect any individual patient outcome. The prognosis for prostate cancer depends on many factors. Doctors at the Prostate Cancer Multidisciplinary Clinic will offer insight and advice based on your specific case.

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• About 299,000 men in the U.S. will get prostate cancer in 2024. It is the most common cancer in men, other than skin cancer. Nearly three out of four men with prostate cancer will be age 65 or older.

• About 80 percent of prostate cancers are diagnosed at a localized stage, which means that the cancer hasn’t spread outside of the prostate.
• Black men and men with a family history of the disease are at higher risk of developing prostate cancer. A man with a father or brother who had prostate cancer is twice as likely to develop the disease. Black men are also more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer.
• Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the U.S. after lung cancer. About 35,250 men in the U.S. will die of prostate cancer in 2024.

Source: American Cancer Society

Fertility After Prostate Cancer Treatment

It is nearly impossible for a man to retain his ability to father children through sexual intercourse after surgery or radiation.During prostatectomy, both the prostate and the nearby seminal vesicles are removed, and a vasectomy is performed. Seminal vesicles and the prostate produce semen that carries the sperm down the urethra and out of the penis during ejaculation. The loss of the organs that produce semen following surgery, plus the vasectomy, makes ejaculation impossible, so the sperm cannot physically leave the body.
 
Radiation therapy nearly always impairs fertility. Radiated prostate cells and seminal vesicles tend to produce semen that cannot transport the sperm well. Sperm can also be damaged, though this occurs far less frequently with more accurate dose planning.

Post-Treatment Fertility Options

For men who wish to father children after treatment for prostate cancer, the best chance for fertility is sperm banking. Semen containing sperm is frozen in liquid nitrogen. After thawing, up to 50% of sperm will regenerate and can be used for artificial insemination.Extracting sperm directly from the testicles might be another option. After harvesting sperm from testicular tissue, a single microscopic sperm is injected into a single microscopic egg. If an embryo forms, it is implanted into the woman’s uterine wall and allowed to grow.The success rates for the two procedures combined—sperm extraction followed by injection of the sperm into the egg—is less than 50%.

Urinary dysfunction is a common side effect of prostate cancer treatments such as prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy, and brachytherapy. Symptoms can include incontinence, increased urinary frequency, urgency, and irritative urination, with varying degrees of severity and recovery timelines depending on the treatment type. Bowel dysfunction, including diarrhea, fecal incontinence, and rectal bleeding, may also occur following prostate cancer treatments.

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