Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is the fifth most common cancer in both sexes combined and the second most common cancer in men. An estimated 900,000 men worldwide were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008, accounting for almost one in seven (14%) cancers diagnosed in men (7% of the total in men and women).1 There have been large increases in the incidence of prostate cancer in many countries worldwide, coupled with little change or small declines in mortality.2 Much of this increase can be attributed to the widespread use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in many Western countries (which detects both invasive cancers at an earlier stage as well as latent, non-lethal tumours that might otherwise have remained asymptomatic and undiagnosed during a man’s lifetime).3,4

The developed countries carry the biggest burden of prostate cancer, accounting for nearly three-quarters (72%) of the total in 2008.1  Prostate cancer incidence varies more than twenty-fold across the regions of the world. Incidence rates are highest in Australia/New Zealand and Western Europe (104 and 93 per 100,000 in 2008, respectively), where prostate cancer screening and PSA testing is common, and lowest in South-Central Asia (4 per 100,000) (Figure 6.1).1 The risk of developing prostate cancer is high in black Caribbean and black African men and low in Asian populations, suggesting important genetic determinants of risk also exist.5,6

Figure 6.1: Prostate Cancer (C61), World Age-Standardised Incidence and Mortality Rates, Regions of the World, 2008 Estimates

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The countries with the highest incidence rates in 2008 were Martinique (a French island in the Caribbean) and Barbados (174 and 140 per 100,000, respectively). The UK was 33rd highest out of 184 countries worldwide.1

section updated 19/09/11

Prostate cancer is the sixth most common cause of death from cancer in men worldwide (ranking ninth in both sexes combined), estimated to be responsible for 258,000 deaths in 2008 (Figure 1.4).1 Since PSA testing has a much greater effect on prostate cancer incidence than mortality, there is much less variation in mortality between the more and less developed of the regions of the world (11 and 6 per 100,000 in 2008, respectively, compared with incidence rates of 62 and 12 per 100,000, respectively). In 2008, mortality rates ranged from 3 per 100,000 in Eastern and South- Central Asia to 26 per 100,000 in the Caribbean. The UK was joint 67th highest out of 184 countries worldwide.1

section updated 31/01/12