Prostate Cancer - Epidemiology

Epidemiology

As of 2011, prostate cancer is the second most frequently diagnosed cancer and the sixth leading cause of cancer death in males worldwide. Rates of prostate cancer vary widely across the world. Although the rates vary widely between countries, it is least common in South and East Asia, more common in Europe, and most common in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is least common among Asian men and most common among black men, with figures for white men in between. The average annual incidence rate of prostate cancer between 1988 and 1992 among Chinese men in the United States was 15 times higher than that of their counterparts living in Shanghai and Tianjin. However, these high rates may be affected by increasing rates of detection. Many suggest that prostate cancer may be under reported, yet BPH incidence in China and Japan is similar to rates in Western countries.,

Prostate cancer develops primarily in men over fifty. It is the most common type of cancer in men in the United States, with 186,000 new cases in 2008 and 28,600 deaths. It is the second leading cause of cancer death in U.S. men after lung cancer. In the United Kingdom it is also the second most common cause of cancer death after lung cancer, where around 35,000 cases are diagnosed every year and of which around 10,000 die of it. Many factors, including genetics and diet, have been implicated in the development of prostate cancer. The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial found that finasteride reduces the incidence of prostate cancer by 30%. There had been a controversy about this also increasing the risk of more aggressive cancers, but more recent research showed this may not be the case.

More than 80% of men will develop prostate cancer by the age of 80. However, in the majority of cases, it will be slow-growing and harmless. In such men, diagnosing prostate cancer is overdiagnosis—the needless identification of a technically aberrant condition that will never harm the patient—and treatment in such men exposes them to all of the adverse effects, with no possibility of extending their lives.