•  25,500 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year alone (2011).
   
• 4,100 men will die of the disease this year.*
   
• During his lifetime, 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with the disease. 

• Prostate cancer is the most common cancer to afflict Canadian men. 

• Rates of prostate cancer in men are comparable to rates of breast cancer in women.
   
• The incidence of prostate cancer is increasing due to the aging of the population.
   
• Over 90% of prostate cancer cases are curable if detected and treated in their earliest stages.
   
• The disease is a far greater threat for those with a family history of prostate cancer.
   
• Prostate cancer is turning up in men in their 40s.
   
• Prostate cancer develops as a result of dietary, environmental and hereditary factors but more research is needed to identify its causes and prevent the disease.
   
• The disease has no symptoms in its earliest, most curable stage – so if you are 40 years old, we recommend you talk to your doctor about a prostate examination, including a digital rectal exam (DRE) and a prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test.
   
• Side effects – even of successful treatment – may include incontinence, impotence and changes in bowel habits.
   
• Prostate cancer is often slow growing: in some patients, close monitoring may be sufficient treatment. Others, with more aggressive disease, warrant radical treatment with surgery or radiation. The latter treatments are sometimes combined with hormonal therapy.
   
• Thought to be a potentially preventable cancer in many cases, but more research is needed and government support for this research is inadequate.

Incidence rates over time

Between 1989 and 1993 there was a sharp rise in the number of prostate cancer diagnoses. This sudden spike occurred after years of slow but steady increases in the incidence rate.

Experts believe that the increased number of diagnoses between 1989 and 1993 was not the result of new cases, but rather a result of previously undiagnosed cancer being caught by the PSA test.

Now that all the formerly undetected cancers have been diagnosed, the incidence rates have gone back to their slow and steady uphill climb.

Mortality rates

Evidence shows that between 1994 and 2003 fewer men died from the disease (2.7% average yearly decline). We don’t know if the lowered death rate is a result of early detection, better treatments or both.

 
* Source: Canadian Cancer Society Statistics 2011