This prostate cancer life insurance guide has everything you need to know.
At RiskQuoter, we specialize in life insurance underwriting for cancer survivors and patients and show you how to get affordable life insurance in this guide.
Quick Overview
Follow these links to the sections of this article that interest you
- Getting Life Insurance After Prostate Cancer
- Getting Life Insurance With Prostate Cancer
- Step by Step Guide to Prostate Cancer Approvals
- Prostate Cancer Underwriting Questions
Getting Life Insurance after Prostate Cancer
You may be asking yourself…
Can I get life insurance after prostate cancer?
The answer for the vast majority of men is YES, which leads to the next question…
How long do I have to wait to get life insurance?
The answer depends on whether you’ve had a radical prostatectomy, radiation treatment or both.
For example,
Life Insurance after Radical Prostatectomy
You have to wait for 3-12 months to get life insurance after prostate cancer surgery, assuming complete recovery and no complications.
In order to qualify in 3 months, you need to meet the following criteria.
- Pre-treatment PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels of 10 or less
- Gleason score of 6 or less
Post-surgical pathology staging of T2b or less- Negative (clear) surgical margins
- Post-treatment PSA level less than 1.0
- Age 60 or older at time of diagnosis
- No family history of prostate cancer
Non-smoker plus rates and possibly preferred rates (rarely) are available.
What happens if you don’t meet the above criteria?
Life insurance is still available but you’ll probably have to wait 12 months or longer. Additional flat extras and/or table ratings may be added to your rate.
Negative risk factors that affect underwriting include:
- Pretreatment PSA 11-20
- Gleason 7
- Cancer stage T3a
- Hormones prior to treatment
- Diagnosed between age 50 – 55
- Positive surgical margins
- PSA >1.0 after surgery
- Gleason 8
- Cancer stage T3b or greater *
- Hormones after treatment *
- Any Recurrence *
- Diagnosed under age 50 *
* These factors require a 5 year postpone in most cases
The more negative underwriting factors you have, the more complicated prostate cancer underwriting becomes.
If you’ve had any other significant health issues such as heart conditions or other cancer histories, we need to know about that history as well
When you submit your prostate cancer quote request to us, we’ll review those factors and let you know how/if they will affect your life insurance rates.
Life Insurance after Radiation Therapy
With radiation therapy, life insurance is available 12 months (or longer) after completing radiation treatment.
The reason why is to see if your treatment for cancer worked, your side effects are manageable, and your cancer is in remission.
The following is considered ideal for radiation therapy:
- A pre-treatment PSA level of 10 or less
- Gleason score of 6 or less, and some Gleason 7 (3+4)
- Post-treatment PSA level of 0.2 or less.
- PSA level stable for more than 12 months
- Age 60 or older at time of diagnosis
Underwriters want to know what treatment option you chose to receive radiation therapy, and how effective treatment is at targeting cancer cells while sparing healthy cells.
The best life insurance companies will consider a “standard” rate and possibly a “non-smoker plus” life insurance rate.
Your entire PSA history is needed from the time it first became elevated until now.
We’ll also need to know about any prostate disorders you may have had such as BPH, prostatitis, and high-grade PIN.
Negative radiation therapy factors include:
- Gleason Score of 7 (when it’s a 4+3)
- Under Age 60 when diagnosed
- Hormonal Therapy
- PSA Increase of 1.0 or more above your nadir
- Gleason Score of 8 or greater.
PSA increases greater than 2.0 ng/ml and is considered a recurrence of prostate cancer. Cancer recurrence typically requires a 5 year postpone period after treatment.
A quick note about types of radiation therapy – The type of treatment used by your radiation oncologist (brachytherapy, EBRT- IMRT, IGRT, 3D-CRT, SBRT, Proton Beam) doesn’t matter as much as the outcome after prostate cancer.
Getting Life Insurance With Prostate Cancer
Can you get life insurance with prostate cancer? Yes, life insurance is available if you have prostate cancer, but qualifying maybe be complicated.
With active surveillance (and watch and wait), your entire PSA history is needed in order to get life insurance offers from companies.
What do life insurance underwriters want to know about your active surveillance history?
Underwriters want to know your age when diagnosed, your PSA history, Gleason score, and your follow-up history.
How old were you when you were diagnosed with prostate cancer?
The younger you were, the more complicated underwriting becomes.
- Under Age 50 – Guaranteed Issue and Accidental Death Benefit policies.
- Age 50-65 – If your PSA is 10 or less, life insurance is available after the postpone period (12-36 months depending on the company).
- Age 65 and older – Life insurance is available for stage 1 – stage T2b. The postpone period may be 12+/- months.
PSA History
Your PSA level at the time of cancer diagnosis is an important factor for underwriting. PSA levels under 10 receive more favorable underwriting.
The most ideal active surveillance candidates meet the following criteria:
- Age 60 or older when diagnosed
- Stage 1 prostate cancer
- Gleason Score of 6 or less
- Stable PSA for 3 years or longer
- Regularly scheduled visits with your urologist.
If you meet these criteria, standard life insurance rates are available after the initial postpone period, and standard plus rates may be available in the future.
What happens if you don’t “fit” the above criteria?
Life insurance companies look at the number of unfavorable factors when underwriting your file.
Unfavorable active surveillance factors include:
- Age 55 or younger when diagnosed
- PSA Level of 10 or greater
- Gleason Score of 7 or greater
- Stage T2 or greater
If cancer grows, or your physician recommends treatment options for you to consider, life insurance companies will postpone coverage until after treatment takes place.
Favorable Active Surveillance Factors:
We’re seeing more and more men choose active surveillance for localized prostate cancer.
Life insurance companies continue to improve their underwriting of active surveillance cases as the medical field improves its active surveillance techniques.
For example:
One of the tests we see more often is the Oncotype DX GPS test. This test was designed to help men with low-risk cancer decide between active surveillance and treatment.
Improvements in DNA testing and imaging tests have led to more aggressive prostate cancer life insurance approvals for active surveillance.
If you’ve had any of these tests completed, let us know.
Radical Prostatectomy and Radiation
If you’ve had a radical prostatectomy and radiation therapy as part of your initial treatment, underwriting generally follows the timeframe required by radiation therapy.
This is different than if you had a radical prostatectomy, a recurrence and then salvage radiation of prostate cancer – this scenario is a case by case for underwriting purposes.
Step by Step Guide to Approvals
Here’s what you need to know in order for us to find you affordable life insurance from great companies that want to help you.
1. Know Your Dates – Know the date of prostate cancer diagnosis, surgery, start and end dates of any radiation treatment as well as follow-up dates.
2. Have your PSA history available – Underwriters need your PSA history, including both pre-cancer PSA tests as well as your most recent results. If you’ve had radiation, we need all PSA tests.
3. Get your prostate cancer stage from the biopsy and pathology reports – For a radical prostatectomy, get a copy of the post-surgical pathology report. For radiation and surveillance, get the biopsy report. The highest stage indicated is used for underwriting purposes.
4. Get your Gleason Score – Your Gleason score is found on the post-surgical pathology report for radical prostatectomies and the biopsy report for radiation or active surveillance. The highest recorded score is used by life insurance underwriting.
5. Know what type of treatment you received – Did you have surgery, radiation, both? Make sure you know all the dates. For surgery, it’s also important to look at the post-surgical pathology report to see if margins were positive or clear.
6. Did you have any cancer recurrence? If cancer has returned, it’s important for you to have all the details.
7. Final Step – Submit your information to us. Our quick quote process takes about 3 days to hear back from all companies. At that time we can start the application with the best life insurance company.
Keep in mind that with our service, there is never any pressure or obligation. We’ll give you the information you need to make an informed decision about your life insurance.
Life insurers will also ask you about any history of prostate disorders such as BPH or prostatitis before your cancer diagnosis.
Prostate Cancer Underwriting Questions
To begin with, underwriters need to know the following:
- When were you diagnosed with prostate cancer?
- What was your PSA level at the time of diagnosis?
- How was cancer treated?
- Radical Prostatectomy
- Radiation
- Active Surveillance – Watch & Wait
- Other
- The date of surgery or the start of treatment?
- The end date of all treatment?
- What stage was the prostate cancer?
- What was the Gleason score?
- Were surgical margins positive or negative?
- Has cancer reoccurred?
We use the details of your medical history to reach out to companies with our quick quote process. A quick quote allows us to get preliminary feedback from all competitive companies in about 3 days.
Once we have all underwriting feedback, we’ll let you know what to expect in terms of underwriting and price.
Denied Life Insurance Due to Prostate Cancer?
Have you been denied life insurance because of prostate cancer? Make sure you read this guide before you apply for life insurance again.
Many declines are due to working with the wrong life insurance company as only a few specialize in prostate cancer.
If you are currently not insurable, we do have guaranteed acceptance and accidental death benefit coverage may be a good option for you in the interim.
Life Insurance Success Stories
We’ve helped many cancer survivors find affordable coverage from the best life insurance companies.
Gleason 6 – Radical Prostatectomy
- Age 55 at the time of diagnosis
- Stage T1b Prostate Cancer
- PSA was 6
- Gleason was a 6
- Radical prostatectomy 2 years ago
- No further treatment required.
- No recurrence
Approved at Non-Smoker Plus rates
Gleason 7 – Radical Prostatectomy
- Age 54 when diagnosed
- Stage T1c prostate cancer
- PSA was 6
- Gleason = 7 (3+4)
- Radical prostatectomy 3 years ago
- No further treatment required.
- No recurrence
Approved at Standard Non-Tobacco rates plus a flat extra expense of $600 per every $100,000 of coverage. The flat extra lasts for 3 years.
Gleason 7 is the reason for the more expensive life insurance rate.
Active Surveillance Treatment Plan
- Age 69 when diagnosed
- Stage T1a
- Historical PSA of 5.0
- Rising PSA Level
- 5.1 at diagnosis
- 5.6 at 6 months
- Gleason 6
- Active Surveillance
Approved at Standard Non-Tobacco rates.
For the active surveillance history, life insurers were concerned about the 0.5 increase in 6 months. It was documented that he planned to start treatment should his PSA reach 6.
Radiation using Brachytherapy
- Age 68 when diagnosed
- Stage 1
- Pre-Treatment PSA = 6.5
- Gleason Score – 6
- Brachytherapy treatment
- Post-Treatment PSA Level has been 0.8 – 1.0.
- No recurrence
Approved at Standard Non-Tobacco rates.
For brachytherapy cases, underwriters focus on PSA levels after reaching your nadir (lowest level). Increases greater than 2.0 ng/mL is a recurrence of prostate cancer.
Prostate Cancer Life Insurance FAQ
We’ve specialized in prostate cancer survivors’ life insurance since 1998, the following are some of the most common questions we receive.
You can get life insurance after prostate cancer if you work with a high-risk life insurance specialist who understands prostate cancer underwriting.
Life insurance is available if you currently have prostate cancer and meet the active surveillance criteria described later on in this article.
The best companies depend on the type of treatment and your details, but Prudential, Lincoln Financial Group, John Hancock and Protective Life tend to be some of the best.
Underwriting varies dramatically by company. Some specialize in radiation and active surveillance, while others specialize in radical prostatectomy.
If you were denied, keep in mind that only a few companies specialize in prostate cancer, that’s why it’s important to work with a high-risk life insurance specialist.
Life insurance companies favor radical prostatectomy in the early years but as more time passes, radiation and stable active surveillance receive similar offers.
Many times, the first indication that something is wrong starts with an abnormal PSA test or DRE (digital rectal exam).
As a result of those tests, we receive a lot of inquiries for life insurance…and while our information is great for life insurance, the best resource we found for understanding your prostate cancer diagnosis is with this guide offered by the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF).
Prostate Cancer Life Insurance Conclusion
We provide you with underwriting feedback from the best life insurance companies for prostate cancer survivors.
You’ll learn what to expect in terms of underwriting and price. We’ll provide you with prostate cancer quotes for term life insurance as well as universal life insurance if you like.
There’s no pressure and no obligation with our life insurance service.
Thank you for taking the time to submit your quote request.
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