Prostate Cancer Facts
• Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in America.• In 2005, over 232,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and over 30,000 men will die from it.
• One new case occurs every 2.5 minutes and a man dies from prostate cancer every 17 minutes.
• After lung cancer, prostate cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in the U.S.
• A nonsmoking man is more likely to get prostate cancer than lung, bronchus, colon, rectal, bladder, lymphoma, melanoma, oral and kidney cancers combined.
• African-American men are 65% more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than Caucasian- Americans and are more than twice as likely to die from it. The reasons for this disparity are not yet known.
• It is estimated that there are over 2 million American men currently living with prostate cancer.
• Early prostate cancer usually has no symptoms and is most commonly detected through prostate cancer screening tests such as the PSA blood test and digital rectal exam.
• Prostate cancer can be eliminated from the body by surgery or radiation – if diagnosed at an early stage.
• However, every year, 70,000 men require additional treatment due to a recurrence of prostate cancer.
• Because prostate cancer is a relatively slow-growing cancer, the 5-year survival rate for prostate cancer diagnosed at all stages is 98%. The relative 10-year survival rate is 84% and the 15-year survival rate is 56%.
• The chance of having prostate cancer increases rapidly after age 50. More than 70% of all prostate cancers are diagnosed in men over the age of 65. It is still unclear why this increase with age occurs for prostate cancer.
• The only well-established risk factors for prostate cancer are age, ethnicity and family history of the disease; however, high dietary fat intake may also be a significant risk factor. A recent study shows that the risk of dying from prostate cancer increases with body weight.
• During the past 11 years, the Prostate Cancer Foundation has raised more than $200 million to support aggressive prostate cancer research. During that time, U.S. government funding for prostate cancer research has increased 20-fold from $25 million per year in 1993 to over $500 million in 2004 – largely as a result of the advocacy efforts of the Prostate Cancer Foundation.