Mike Scott who writes the THE “NEW” PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK today published an excellent summary/discussion about survival time for men with metastatic prostate cancer. He presents a synopsis about anticipated survival going back to the late 1980s and brings the conversation up to our current condition.
He reminds us that our next big step will be figuring out how to sequence the drugs we do have and how to add future drugs to best prolong survival our survival.
Mike has given me permission to re-post his article below (which can also be read on his site by clicking here):
“In the late 1980s and early 1990s it was generally considered that men diagnosed with metastatic (but still hormone sensitive) prostate cancer had an estimated survival of 18 to 36 months from the time of diagnosis — including their time on treatment with hormonal therapy. And prior to 2003, there was no known treatment that had any meaningful effect on the survival of men who had a rising PSA after they had started on hormonal therapy.
Many specialists in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer (and at least some of their patients) are convinced that the overall survival of men with metastatic prostate cancer is much longer today than it was in the early 1990s. We have been told that the median