Prostate Cancer Mortality Rate

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancer killers in the UK and US for men, although if it is caught early before it has spread outside of the prostate gland then chances of successful treatment are high. In the UK, after lung cancer prostate cancer is the most common cause of cancer death, although It has only been recently that it has begun to get the amount of research for a cure that it needs.

In England in 2006, there were 8506 deaths caused by prostate cancer If you were to express this as the number of deaths per 100000 people, then the prostate cancer mortality rate is around 34.3 men.

The chances of a man getting prostate cancer increase greatly with age, which can be seen from the statistic that for men over 85 it is the most common of all cancer deaths.

The survival rate for prostate cancer in the UK has been steadily increasing over the last twenty years due to better screening and treatment methods. If the cancer is caught before spreading to the bone then there is a good chance of successful treatment. However if it has spread to the bone and become advanced prostate cancer then treatment can often only achieve a prolonged life with reduced symptoms.

Overall, in the UK the mortality rate reached a peak in the 1990s, and then began to fall for the first time in thirty years. Recently, the rates have been stable although it is too early to say whether prostate cancer mortality rates will continue this way.

By James Kernal