Short answers, pulled from the story.
The first recorded observation of prostate cancer occurred in 1817 when English surgeon George Langstaff described a prostate mass during an autopsy of a 68-year-old man. This case marked the initial documentation of what would later become known as prostate cancer.
Autopsies show that cancer is present in the prostates of more than 40% of men over age 50. Nearly 70% of men autopsied between ages 80 and 89 also have the disease, indicating it is often present but never causes symptoms or death.
Levels above 4 nanograms per milliliter indicate an increased risk of prostate cancer. More than half of men in that group develop cancer, while men with levels over 10 nanograms per milliliter face an even higher risk.
A Gleason score of 10 represents the most severely cancerous tissue and the worst prognosis. Scores range from 3 to 5, with the final score calculated by adding the two numbers that represent the largest areas of the biopsy sample.
Charles Huggins and Clarence V. Hodges published studies showing that surgical castration or oral estrogen could reduce androgen levels in 1941. This discovery earned Huggins the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The five-year survival rate for men with metastases in distant body sites remains relatively poor at 30 to 40 percent. Bone metastases are present in around 85% of those with metastatic prostate cancer and are the primary cause of symptoms and death.