What Happens If You Don’t Treat Prostate Cancer?

While you might expect that treating cancer as soon as possible would be the best way to go, this is not always the case for prostate cancer. Generally, it has been found to be a slow-growing disease. If caught early on, selecting the best treatment for prostate cancer will then depend on your personal circumstances, health and risk of disease progression. Choosing not to undergo prostate cancer treatment could even be the right decision for you. In some cases, your doctor may recommend it as the best option to help you maintain your quality of life by avoiding the side effects of prostate cancer treatment.

There are two situations where you might consider this:

• Active surveillance

Currently, active surveillance is recommended for cases of prostate cancer that are either low-risk, or considered favorable despite being classified as intermediate-risk. Following this strategy means that you won’t have to treat your prostate cancer until your doctor notices significant progression. Instead, your prostate cancer will be carefully monitored by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing, physical examinations, multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and potentially biopsies. This is considered a much safer way to deal with prostate cancer especially in its early stages due to how slow its growth is.

• Watchful waiting

For those who are too old or too sick to face rounds and rounds of treatment, watchful waiting can be considered as an easier way to manage prostate cancer. At this point, you would only undergo treatments if you face significant symptoms which affect your quality of life. The biggest goal will be to minimize pain and inconvenience to your daily life. The logic behind this is to limit any unnecessary exposure to the side effects and pain associated with regular monitoring, or further treatment. In the medical world, there is currently a move towards reducing aggressive prostate cancer treatment where appropriate, in order to minimize unnecessary overtreatment.

In the early symptoms of prostate cancer, you may initially face issues with urinating, including:

• Inability to control your urination
• Poor urination flow
• Urinating more frequently, especially at night
• Pain while urinating
• Blood in your urine

As your prostate cancer progresses, you may start to face symptoms of advanced prostate cancer, including:

• Bone pain
• Weakness in your lower body
• More difficulty controlling urination or bowel movements
• General fatigue, weight loss and poor appetite

Upon noticing symptoms that disrupt your life and make you uncomfortable — you can start to consider a palliative approach to treating the disease. You can still choose to only take on treatments that mitigate the pain affecting your quality of life.

Notably, before making your treatment decision, you should consider whether you might come to regret not undergoing immediate treatment in the future. If you have done all you can now to prepare yourself emotionally, future you will likely be able to accept, or at least understand any decision you make at this point.

Ultimately, the final decision you make should be the one you feel the best about. It will largely depend on your current circumstances and personal preferences. Rest assured that your doctor will be able to discuss the pros and cons of each possibility with you. With some luck, if your prostate cancer is slow-progressing, you will still be able to enjoy life with minimal interference. If not, resources are available to help you monitor your situation, and allow you to take the next step to intervene if you so wish.