How common is prostate cancer?
A. Prostate cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in many western countries. Currently there are 35,000 new cases a year in the UK; 220,000 in the USA; 22,000 in Canada and 14,000 new cases a year in Australia. The number of recorded cases has increased a lot in recent years. This is partly due to the increased use of the PSA test, which has resulted in more cases being detected, and partly due to the fact that men are living longer. Like most cancers, prostate cancer is more common in the elderly.
Cancer of the prostate is the second most common type of cancer in American men (behind skin cancer) and the second leading cause of cancer death in men (behind lung cancer). Prostate cancer is especially common in older men: A third of men over 50 have microscopic signs of prostate cancer, and at 75 more than half of men will have some cancerous cells in their prostate.
