How Many People in the United States Have Prostate Cancer in 2024?

Prostate cancer by the numbers

Prostate cancer is the number one cause of cancer in men, representing about 29% of all cancer diagnoses in men. An estimated 299,000 new prostate cancer cases will be diagnosed nationally in 2024. Prostate cancer is the number two cause of cancer-related deaths in men (lung cancer is number one). An estimated 35,250 men in the United States will die from prostate cancer this year,.

Prostate cancer varies in how it progresses. Many patient's diagnoses can be managed either with surveillance or localized therapies such as surgery or radiation therapy. Some patients will have more aggressive diseases that may require a complex approach, including surgery, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy and even chemotherapy.

Diagnosis

Prostate cancer is often detected following a biopsy, which is usually done after a test shows high levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood. However, the PSA test can be aggressive as it might identify cancers that wouldn't have caused issues, leading to unnecessary treatments. Additionally, high PSA levels can be due to non-cancerous conditions. Therefore, it's important to talk to a doctor about the benefits and drawbacks of PSA screening.

The Gleason score is a grading scale used to classify how prostate cancer looks under the microscope. A higher Gleason score indicates a more aggressive cancer.

Treatment options

For prostate cancers that are limited to the prostate gland, management options include surgery (a prostatectomy), radiation therapy, or, in some cases, active surveillance. Active surveillance includes routine measurement of PSA levels and periodic prostate biopsies; it is only an option for very low-risk diseases. Sometimes, radiation is given following surgery.

Sometimes, following surgery or radiation, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is given to decrease the risk of prostate cancer recurrence. We know that men's sex hormones, specifically testosterone, are a driving factor for the development and progression of prostate cancer. ADT decreases the effect of testosterone on cancer by reducing the production of testosterone or by blocking the binding of testosterone to receptors in the tumor. The major side effects of ADT include impotence, fatigue and mood changes.

New medicine emerges

When prostate cancer has spread to other organs, treatment includes androgen-deprivation therapy, chemotherapy and sometimes radiation/radioactive therapy. The Food and Drug Administration has approved several new medications over the past few years, and they have transformed the treatment for prostate cancer that continues to grow despite androgen-deprivation therapy.

Patients with prostate cancer are living longer than ever before. Because prostate cancer can be different in terms of aggressiveness, patients must be managed by urologists, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists who collaborate to determine a treatment strategy that is specific to your unique cancer.