The treatment of localised prostate cancer is fraught with difficulty and each individual case needs to be considered on its own merits. Organ confined disease is potentially curable by radical treatment with surgery or radiotherapy. Due to the slow-growing nature of the disease the benefit of cure usually only becomes apparent after 10 - 15 years. The radical treatment of prostate cancer carries a high morbidity. The younger patient who will gain the most from the survival benefit of radical treatment also stands to suffer the greatest from the potential complications of erectile dysfunction and incontinence. Patients with less than 10 years life expectancy due to their age or other co-m

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orbid disease should not be offered radical treatment for prostate cancer.

Radical prostatectomy involves the surgical removal of the prostate and surrounding structures. Radical prostatectomy provides the best chance of cure for early prostate cancer. Cure rates are quoted at 70 - 80% in the literature. The main complications are incontinence and erectile dysfunction. 5% of patients suffer total incontinence and 30% suffer a degree of wetness needing some protection. The incidence of erectile dysfunction varies with age and is quoted at 30 - 70%.

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