A cohort study was conducted among 6,849 Swedish men with localized prostate cancer diagnosed during 1997–2002.24 Death rates through 2008 were compared between those who did and did not undergo treatment with curative intent (most commonly, a radical prostatectomy).

The cumulative 10-year mortality from prostate cancer was low (2.7 per 100) in the men receiving an attempt at cure, and only 0.9 per 100 higher than this in those not so treated.

About 10 per 100 of the actively treated men died of causes other than prostate cancer; adjusting for age, the corresponding figure for the men in whom a curative procedure was not attempted was nearly twice as high.