More men die every year from medical treatment for cancer of the prostate gland, whereas had they not received any treatment at all, the majority of them would live and die from old age long before prostate cancer would get them.
Almost every man who dies from natural causes / old age has cancerous cells in his prostate.
It is the advances in testing today which is finding early stages in men, and it is the greed and insanity of the medical surgeons and oncologists who stand to earn millions of dollars from burning, cutting, removing, irradiating, and chemically castrating men; after first convincing them that to do otherwise would be "putting themselves at risk".
Don't take my word for it...do your own research on prostate cancer "treatments".
Virtually every one leaves the patient incontinent and impotent for the rest of their lives, and usually suffering pain as well.
Even the standard "Trans-Urethral Prostatic Resection" (the standard fare surgery for an enlarged but non-cancerous prostate) has serious risks including incontinence and impotence, and is at best a short term temporary "treatment", for the tissue which is "roto-rootered" out will quickly grow back, requiring repeated surgeries.
Read about the "great advance" of injecting radioactive "seeds" directly into the prostate gland, believing that the constant localized radioactivity will shrink the gland and stall the cancer.
Of course, there is a very good possibility that the "seeds" of radioactive iodine will leave the gland and travel around inside the abdomen.
Whether or not they do get loose, one of the standard "side effects' is burned and ulcerated rectum and anus from the radioactivity burning your insides out over a period of months.
Silly me!...There's a "new" advance....the "latest" and "safest" treatment....
Cryosurgery.
The surgeon stabs about three spike needles into the perineum from different angles, all the while studying your insides on an MRI screen.
When he's "certain" he's in a good position, catheters are inserted through the needles and liquid nitrogen freezes (burns) areas of the prostate, bladder, and or other organs.
It's a wonderful treatment, as long as you realize that few surgeons are skilled enough to even attempt it, and those that do try it usually attempt to "minimize" the very real odds of ending up not only incontinent, but impotent as well.
MassuhD's advice to the forlorn:
NEVER have surgery unless there is absolutely NO alternative (meaning you will probably die tomorrow without it).
Me? A good cigar and stop worrying about it.
You're not going to live forever regardless of what you do.
When's the last time you heard about some skid-row "junkie" with prostate cancer?
NEVER.
Because they die either from overdose or old age long before some Urologist gets a chance to earn $250,000 for destroying their sex life and leaving them dribbling urine into their pants 24/7.
Who wants to get very sick, lose all of your money, pee in your pants, never have sex again, and die early from the trauma of chemo, radiation, and cutting?
p.s.--and there's not a single new A.M.A. surgeon around who will agree with my opinions...to a man or woman, they ALL will INSIST you BEGIN TREATMENTS IMMEDIATELY! (oh...you DO have INSURANCE, "don't you"?)