Understanding the outcomes of the different treatments for localised prostate cancer can be challenging.

It’s a personal choice weighing up the quality of life versus the survival benefits.

The following diagram are the average results from the Protect Study for each of the three treatment options- active surveillance, radical prostatectomy, and radiotherapy.

Protect Study

Off course every patient is different, and some patients may be at higher or lower risk than that indicated, however none of the small survival differences at 15 years are statistically proven for the whole group of patients or any particular risk group.

There are many different measures of quality of life. The quality of life is shown at 5 years. In subsequent years there are changes due to natural ageing and some patients who started with active surveillance may end up undergoing radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy which can impact on quality of life.

Incontinence was defined as not being 100% continent.

Erectile dysfunction was defined as erections not being firm enough for intercourse.

The outcomes are shown for blocks of a hundred men as a percentage. A green man is a good outcome, and a red man is a bad outcome.

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