Living as Long as Possible
If living as long a life as possible is the most important thing to you, then screening and aggressive treatment may be the best strategy. The hoped-for benefit of aggressive treatment is cure -- complete elimination of the cancer, with no recurrence, and living out a normal life span. This is possible if the cancer is confined to the prostate and the prostate is removed. Unfortunately, doctors can never be quite sure that the surgery or the radiation got all of the cancerous tissue. Nor do they know if you really needed treatment in the first place. If there is a reasonable chance for a cure doctors will usually recommend aggressive treatment, rather than not treat, only to find out later that the cancer is aggressive and that treatment may have increased survival. So, to maximize your chance of avoiding fatal prostate cancer, screen and treat aggressively. The cost of this strategy is a poorer quality of the rest of your life.
