Prostate cancer survival rates are rising

Prostate cancer is being treated more effectively, and most men survive it. However, once the tumor is controlled, another challenge begins, less visible and rarely discussed. A significant part of the recovery takes place away from medical evaluations.

Psychological and relational impacts are overlooked

At the Italian Ministry of Health, Professor Paola Binetti from the Campus Bio-Medico University in Rome, argued in early October 2026, in an intervention relayed by Adnkronos, for an approach that dismantles the fears of men affected by this tumor. Because beyond the sick body, the diagnosis disrupts the life of the couple, relationships, and the relationship with the passage of time. Prostate cancer is also fought on this intimate terrain, long overlooked.

Prostate cancer is the most common in men

Prostate cancer is the most common in men. In Italy, more than 485,000 live today with this diagnosis, and the five-year survival rate exceeds 90%, according to the AIOM foundation, the Italian association of medical oncology. The disease therefore kills fewer and fewer people, but leaves behind a large number of survivors.

The disease primarily affects older men

It mainly affects men after the age of fifty, with a peak around 70 years, often in men who are still active and independent. And as detection progresses, more and more of them live long years with the traces left by the treatment, on the body as well as on the mind.

Treatment consequences affect quality of life

This success shifts the problem. When people no longer die from the disease, it is the life after that which counts, with its treatments full of consequences. Surgery and prostate radiotherapy often leave erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence, which directly affect sexuality and self-confidence.

Fears about intimacy and identity persist

It is here that Paola Binetti places the focus. Receiving this diagnosis, she recalls, is not only facing the fear of the disease, but a cascade of questions about affective life, the couple, friendships, and even the relationship with one's own body and the passage of time. Her message is to dismantle these fears one by one.

Silence around sexuality remains a challenge

However, this aspect remains taboo. For patient associations such as Europa Uomo, the silence around sexuality after prostate cancer is "a real social disease." Many men hide their discomfort, and the re-education, psychological and physical, is still often refused or difficult to access.

Recovery requires a multidisciplinary approach

For the specialists gathered around this issue, recovery is not only measured by the absence of tumor, but by the ability to continue feeling like a man and a partner. This requires a multi-voiced approach, where psychologists, urologists, and oncologists work together, and where the patient's voice weighs as much as the examinations in deciding when to treat and when to monitor.

New screening methods aim to improve care

Prevention is also progressing. In Italy, a ministerial project is experimenting with organized screening. In this context, doctors use MRI to better guide examinations. This approach could thus avoid more than half of the biopsies in men with a high PSA level, the blood marker for the prostate. The goal is to detect truly dangerous tumors earlier, without causing unnecessary anxiety in other patients.