Prostate cancer: what is it?
Prostate cancer is a malignant tumour of the prostate gland. There may be no symptoms of early prostate cancer, and it may be found during a routine examination.
Prostate cancer is rare in men under 50 and becomes more common as men get older.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer after skin cancer in Australian men. About 10,000 Australian men are diagnosed with the disease every year and about 2,500 die from it.
[However, this does not mean that a quarter of men diagnosed with prostate cancer will die from it — the 10,000 new cases every year add to the much larger number of existing cases of prostate cancer. It is out of this much larger number that 2500 deaths occur. The lifetime risk in Australia of dying of prostate cancer for men aged 0 to 74 is one in 73.]
For further information and advice, call the Cancer Helpline on 13 11 20.
Last Reviewed: 08 November 2001
