Prevent Prostate Cancer

Why should you learn about prostate cancer? After all, as a woman, you don’t have a prostate. So prostate cancer is one of the few medical diseases you can be sure you won’t get! But the men in your life—your husband, boyfriend, father, brother, son—do have prostates. And they can get prostate cancer.

Since we all know that women like you are the "gatekeepers" when it comes to the health of your family, it’s important that you understand this disease, the most common cancer diagnosed in men.

Fact 1. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, representing nearly one-third of cancers diagnosed in men.

It is the second leading cause of cancer death in men behind lung cancer, although prostate cancer is much more survivable. Overall, men in the United States have about a one in six lifetime risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer (compared with the one-in-eight lifetime risk women have of developing breast cancer).

An estimated 218,890 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007, with 27,000 deaths. About 90 percent of prostate cancers are diagnosed when the cancer is still confined to the prostate, or has only spread a little. Nearly all men whose cancers are found in these early stages are alive in five years, while 93 percent of men with any stage of prostate cancer are alive in 10 years, and 77 percent at 15 years.

Although the incidence of prostate cancer has jumped in the past 20 years thanks, primarily, to more attention to the disease and more screening, it has leveled off in recent years and plateaued in men 65 and older.

Fact 2. Age is the greatest risk factor for prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer rarely occurs in men under 40. Instead, the risk increases exponentially with every decade after 50. For instance, the incidence of new prostate cancers in men in their early 50s is about 100 in 100,000, but about 1,000 in 100,000 for men in their 70s.

Another major risk is ethnicity. African Americans are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than Caucasian or Hispanic men and more likely to be diagnosed earlier. The differences may be related to diet or genetics, but we really don’t know.

Family history also plays a role. Men whose brothers or fathers had prostate cancer have twice the risk of developing it themselves. Researchers are working to identify specific genes that may be related to the disease.

Fact 3. Good, although not perfect, screening tests exist for prostate cancer.