Incidence and Mortality

Globally, at least 913,000 people are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, accounting for 13.8% of new cancer cases in men.¹ The regional incidence of prostate cancer varies widely, with some of the highest age-standardized rates (ASR) observed in North America (85,700), Australia and New Zealand (104,200) and Western and Northern Europe (94,200 and 73,100 respectfully),^1,3 these are represented in Figure 1. In Europe, prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed non-cutaneous malignancy in men, accounting for one in five male cancers.² Overall, 385,500 new cases were identified in 2008 in Europe alone.¹ A breakdown of European age-standardised incidence rates are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1. Prostate Cancer, World Age-Standardised Incidence Rates, World Regions, 2008 Estimates³

Reproduced with permission of Cancer Research UK

Despite its prevalence, prostate cancer is only the third leading cause of cancer death in European men, causing around 89,900 deaths per year.¹

Figures taken from a worldwide study show that most men don’t die from their prostate cancer and a major current challenge is to identify those patients who will benefit from therapy.⁴

The epidemiology of prostate cancer has been significantly affected by the widespread introduction of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening.^1,5 In countries such as the UK, where the introduction of PSA screening has been introduced gradually since the early 1990s, there has been a steady increase in the age-standardised incidence rates in line with the increase in screening.^3,6 The incident rate is 25 times higher in the developed world where PSA screening occurs, compared with the developing world, where it does not. However, the mortality rate in these developing countries is only 10 times higher.¹ This indicates that by facilitating the detection of asymptomatic cancers, this test has prompted a surge in incidence rates and an increase in survival, which, it has been suggested, is due to the detection of tumours at an earlier stage.⁵

References