Survival figures of 158 consecutive patients with carcinoma of the prostate without evidence of extrapelvic spread and treated by radiotherapy with curative intent, were calculated for 3 different clinical T-stages. Patients with subclinical malignancy (incidental finding at surgery for benign disease with less than adequate removal of all cancerous foci; or cases with positive margins after operation for overt malignancy), denoted a survival curve which was fully identical with that of an age-matched control population. Of cases with palpable but still intracapsular cancer (T2), 78% survived for 5 y and 42% for 10 y. Transcapsular cases (T3/T4) showed figures of 48% and 19% after 5 and 10 y, respectively. An important increase of the relative mortality risk, from 2 to 6, 5, was found for T3/T4 patients with decreasing age, for which phenomenon we have, as yet, no valid explanation. The significance of these various figures is briefly discussed. The authors are inclined to believe that there are indications from their own results and from those in the literature that some type of local or locoregional treatment may be of value at least in early cases (T1/T2), but that, even if so, conclusive proof will result only from large, comparative trials.