Cancer of the prostate gland. Results of early diagnosis and therapy undertaken for cure of the disease

At the Cancer Detection Center at the University of Minnesota, 5,856 men underwent a total of 28,407 routine annual examinations, which included evaluation by digital palpation of the prostate gland. Seventy-five subsequently confirmed adenocarcinomas of the prostate gland were detected, and the patients with these had an absolute five-year survival rate of 77.3% (58). The absolute ten-year survival rate for 48 of these patients was 44%. Twenty-two patients who underwent curative total prostatectomies could be followed for a least five years. Twenty of the 22 were five-year survivors, for an absolute five-year survival rate of 91%; the age-adjusted rate was 100%. At ten years the absolute survival rate was 69%; and the relative survival rate was observed to have remained at 100%. These results may be compared with those of the End Results Study, which show relative survival rates of 49% at five years, and 29% at ten years.