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CancerStats Key Facts on Prostate Cancer

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This page presents key prostate cancer incidence, survival and mortality statistics, and the main risk factors for prostate cancer. You can download a PDF of the CancerStats Key Facts on Prostate Cancer page.

How common is prostate cancer?

• Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK representing a quarter of all new cases of cancer diagnosed in men.
• In 2004, the number of new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in the UK reached almost 35,000.

• Over the last 30 years prostate cancer rates in Great Britain have tripled, although much of the increase is due to increased detection through widespread use of the PSA test.
• Around 60% of prostate cancer cases are diagnosed in men aged over 70 years.
• Around 300,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in Europe each year. The lowest rates are in southern and eastern Europe and the highest rates are in Scandinavia and northern Europe.
• Worldwide, more than 670,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. The highest rates are in the USA and Sweden whilst the lowest rates are in China and India.

Read more in-depth prostate cancer incidence statistics.

How many men survive prostate cancer?

• Around 7 in 10 newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients now survive beyond five years. In the 1970s it was only 3 in 10.

Read more in-depth prostate cancer survival statistics.

How many men die from prostate cancer?

• Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in UK men, after lung cancer.
• Each year around 10,000 men in the UK die from prostate cancer.
• Prostate cancer death rates have not changed significantly in the last ten years, unlike incidence.

Read more in-depth prostate cancer mortality statistics.

What causes prostate cancer?

• The strongest risk factor for prostate cancer is age, with very low risk in men under the age of 50, but risk increasing with age thereafter.
• Men with one or more first-degree relatives (father, brother, or son) diagnosed with prostate cancer have an increased risk of prostate cancer, especially if the relative was diagnosed before the age of 60.
• West African men and black men from the Caribbean have a higher risk of prostate cancer than white men.
• Men born in Asia have a lower risk of prostate cancer than men born in the UK.

Read more in-depth prostate cancer risk factors.

Why not browse our other prostate cancer pages below...?