Prostate Cancer

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Winning the Battle Against Prostate Cancer

After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men in the United States. Prostate cancer can be a complex disease to treat. In some men, the disease is very aggressive and requires treatment. In others, however, it is a slow-growing disease that is unlikely to cause serious problems.

Statistics Are Abstract; Lives Aren’t

Drew Bouton, Prostate Cancer Survivor At age 45, Drew Bouton was diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer. The late stage of his disease ruled out surgery as a treatment, but thanks to some cutting edge therapies at SCCA, Drew was able to turn back his cancer. Read more about Drew.

If you have prostate cancer, where you choose to go for initial treatment has a significant impact on the likelihood of survival. Our doctors are nationally renowned experts in treating prostate and genitourinary cancer. The SCCA team provides customized treatments for each patient, including state-of-the-art techniques such as laparoscopic da Vinci robotic surgery, ultra-precise radiotherapy techniques, and immunotherapy. In addition, there are many new medications and alternative treatments under investigation in clinical studies available only at SCCA and selected sites around the country. As you can see below, patients treated at SCCA have high five-year survival rates for stages II, III, and IV prostate cancer.

Prostate Cancer Survival Rates

Below are the five-year survival rates for prostate cancer patients treated by SCCA compared to patients who were treated for prostate cancer elsewhere. This information was collected by the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) for patients who were diagnosed either between 1998 and 2002 or between 2003 and 2004 and then followed for five years. The NCDB data set for 1998-2002 classifies hospitals into three types (Community Cancer Center, Comprehensive Community Cancer Center, and Academic/Research Hospital), whereas the 2003-2004 data combines these three classifications into one.

We've used the latest data set where possible. For stage III prostate cancer, the 2003-2004 data set did not provide statistically accurate results, so we've used the 1998-2002 data set instead. There were not enough SCCA patients diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer between 1998 and 2002 or between 2003 and 2004 to provide statistically accurate results.

Stage II Prostate Cancer

  • SCCA patients are represented by the red line. Their five-year survival rate was 98 percent from the time they were first diagnosed by SCCA. Note that only patients who received all of their care from SCCA are included.
  • Patients from the other types of treatment centers—Community Cancer Centers, Comprehensive Community Cancer Centers, and Academic/Research Hospitals—are represented by the blue line. Their combined five-year survival rates was 91 percent.

Stage III Prostate Cancer

  • SCCA patients are represented by the red line. Their five-year survival rate was 96 percent from the time they were first diagnosed by SCCA. Note that only patients who received all of their care from SCCA are included.
  • Patients from the other types of treatment centers—Community Cancer Centers, Comprehensive Community Cancer Centers, and Academic/Research Hospitals—are represented by blue, green, and yellow lines. Their five-year survival rates were between 87 and 92 percent.

Stage IV Prostate Cancer

  • SCCA patients are represented by the red line. Their five-year survival rate was 60 percent from the time they were first diagnosed by SCCA. Note that only patients who received all of their care from SCCA are included.
  • Patients from the other types of treatment centers—Community Cancer Centers, Comprehensive Community Cancer Centers, and Academic/Research Hospitals—are represented by the blue line. Their combined five-year survival rate was 39 percent.

The NCDB tracks the outcomes of 70 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer in the United States from more than 1,500 commission-accredited cancer programs. It has been collecting data from hospital cancer registries since 1989 and now has almost 26 million records. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Data Collection Methodology