Does remission add to length of life?

Had a consultation with a new (to me) radiation oncologist at a university cancer center last Friday and during our discussion of my case I asked if we were successful in getting it into remission would it add any length to my life expectancy. He said he was not aware of any studies showing longer life but I could expect a better quality of life due to delaying the side effects from hormones provided there were no adverse reactions to the radiation. He further stated there was about a 5% chance of small bowel damage in treating a common iliac lymph node and the same 5% chance of nerve damage while treating a small lesion on my right ischium. Damage to either area would be permanent and life changing.

During the process of weighing pros vs cons to treatment I have assumed remission would add some time to overall life. To be perfectly honest about it, remission but no additional length of life makes no sense to me. Has anyone else asked your provider this question? Hopefully some of you know of some studies that will shed some light on this.

Thanks
Woody

I would talk to another doctor. I googled remission and unless I can't read, this falls under the term common sense.

If whatever treatment you have gives you a 10-year remission, then you've removed PCa as a cause of death for that period. Other causes of death are still on the table, but logically if you removed one potential cause of death, that should (statistically) extend your life.

As for QOL during that period, if treatment can do things like postpone mets for a long time, that would certainly have a QOL benefit given the pain they cause. OTOH, you have to weigh that against the 5% chances of the complications that he's talked about.

If you were diagnosed at 69 can I assume that you're 72 now? How is your overall health?

Woodpecker, it's about time you got on ADT..For most men, it will give you 2 or 3 more years of fairly good time..When that fails you can try Zytiga or Xtandi and maybe get 2 or 3 more years..Or you can just blow it all off and see what happens...You can kind of tell how much sand is left in the hourglass by watching your PSA number...

compiler said...
Woody:

I emailed you a question

Mel

...hahahha...in case you are one of those people on social media who doesn't check email!

yep...it was silly then; it's still silly now