How long is the remission period for PCa patients?

Hi A,
That question is ambiguous. Remission varies and there is no known reason that it lasts longer for some advanced patients than those that thought they were cured. Is it the care, the treatment, or just plain luck? Also what is remission? <0.1 is generally accepted. But the truth be told all of us have a chance of return. I don't want to scare anybody. But stage I with a gleason 2 can return. Not likely but if you entered all the posibilities into a "calculater" then you'll notice that there is no such thing as 100% cured. My chance of cure is less than 10%. What I understand is that the Gleason will represent the recurrance rate more than anything else. Including stage. If you have a Gleason 10, then you face an uphill battle. But that is not a terminal illness necessarily. Your question from what I know cannot be answered definitively. For me I hope it is 40 years.

I just have revised my response.  I am certain the answer is no if taking your question verbatum.  Nobody can state that they know.  But I leave my first response for all to review.  I like your question and took it to mean WHY can't we define our remission.

Tony

Post Edited (TC-LasVegas) : 8/12/2007 12:27:00 AM (GMT-6)

Hi A,

I agree with everyone thus far. I don't think anyone can really predict the likely remission period for an individual.

There are many nomogram calculators for prostate cancer recurrance prediction online. One of the most interesting I've seen thus far is the one below:
http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/10088.cfm

The treatment year entry for the post-treatment calculator above is limited to 2006, so you just have to enter your months since treatment. I think the calculators accessed above predict treatment success for pre-treatment and post-treatment patients for surgery and radiation.

Some other interesting calculators are listed below:
http://reed.hjf.org:8080/Nomogram/index.jsp (Walter Reed Post-op for RP - need Post OP PSA levels)
http://www.cpdr.org/programs/database/preop.html (CDPR Pre-Op Calculator)
http://www.cpdr.org/programs/database/postop.html (CDPR Post-Op Calculator)

The calculators are interesting, but don't tell the whole story, since we are all individuals and we are driving our own treatment plans with the best information we have available to us.

The best to you!

Idaho

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Age: 54
PSA: 4.3
Biopsy: T1c, 3+3=6, 2 pos. samples in one node, <5% volume
Surgery (robotic): 31 Jul 2007, saved nerve bundle on side of non-cancerous node
Hospital stay: 2 days
Final pathology: Tumor confined to prostate, T2a, 3+3=6, <1% volume
Working to get back into good shape
Waiting for that first post-op PSA