Prostate Cancer Information

Background on Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is common in older men. By age 50, about one-third of American men have microscopic signs of prostate cancer. By age 75, half to three-quarters of men will have some cancerous changes in their prostate glands. Most of these cancers remain latent, producing no signs of symptoms, or are so slow-growing that they never become a serious threat to health.

Until the last several years, prostate cancer death rates had been rising steadily. For example, in 1932 this cancer killed 17 of every 100,000 American men. By 1991, this number had reached 25 in 100,000. Since then, however, the death rates have been declining. The reasons for both the earlier increase and the recent decline in the prostate cancer death rates are unclear.

What is prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer begins in cells, the building blocks that make up tissues, a layer of cells that work together to perform a specific function. Normally, cells grow and divide to form new cells as the body needs them. When cells grow old and die, new cells take their place. Sometimes this orderly process goes wrong. The body’s way of getting rid of unneeded or abnormal cells is called apoptosis. The process of apoptosis may be blocked in cancer cells. New cells form when the body does not need them, and old cells do not die when they should.

The extra cells form a mass of tissue, called a growth or tumor. Tumors can be benign, meaning they are not cancerous, or malignant, meaning they have become cancerous. Benign tumors do not spread to other parts of the body, and are rarely a threat to life. Malignant tumors can spread or metastasize, and may be life threatening.


Normal cells that have been stained in order to view

How many people are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year?
Except for skin cancer, cancer of the prostate is the most common type of cancer found in American men. It is estimated that nearly 232,090 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005, which means 1 man in 6 will get prostate cancer during his lifetime. In most men with prostate cancer, the disease grows very slowly. The majority of men with low-grade, early prostate cancer (confined to the gland) live a long time after their diagnosis. Even without treatment, many of these men will not die of prostate cancer, but rather will live with it until they eventually die of some other, unrelated cause. Nevertheless, approximately 30,350 men will die of prostate cancer in 2005.