The word "survivor" is used rather loosely.  We're all "survivors" post
treatment if we're still alive.  Maybe you're confusing it with the
word "cure" as used in cancer therapy which is often over used.  I
recall decades ago hearing that anyone "cancer-free" after five years
was "cured."  We in the prostate business know that isn't true - look
at the occasional poor bugger who gets a recurrence ten years later.  I
personally don't think very many cancer patients are ever really cured
except for some forms of leukemia and testicular cancer - maybe a few
others - since stray cancer cells slough off pre treatment and course
throughout our bodies, many not surviving but some latching on
somewhere else to be attacked by our own immune systems - sometimes
successfully, sometimes not.  That's why you never see 100% "cure"
rates for any treatment no matter how good the margins, or how "organ
confined", or how great the doctor.  Since prostate cancer is so slow
growing relative to say pancreatic or ovarian cancer where there are
very few "cures", many men die of something else before recurrence, I
guess they go in the "cured" column.  
Dave Perry

Literally, until you die, you have survived.  It requires no effort... no
mindset...  just an affliction without ultimate disposition.

However, my idea of a survivor when I say "Prostate Cancer Survivor" is
someone who hasn't given up, who is fighting the bastard and who, regardless
of the number of rounds he has lost, hasn't been KO'd.

Hello,
   A combination of both,
Still alive, and waiting to see if the choice of treatment left one
permanently cured.
I had RP, in 1999, I was 49.
I could have chose radiation(external beam) and seeds/
I chose RP.
That was in 1999
I was 49, and now I am 55.
I feel like I am a survivor, still alive after diagnosis, and passing on
iformation to those who have not a clue.
I would number one, put my age into prospective, 2 decide what the diagnosis
say's, and 3....Go for the best option...
Some men do fine with RP.  Others do fine with seeds.
Although they have problems along the way.
Radiation work fine for many, with problems...
I chose RP, and then got tested for 5 to 6 years.
Luckily, I am a survivor, and have 0.01 or less.
You figure!
John Loomis
A survivor, and trying to help others.