Prostate Cancer Facts and Statistics

Diagnosis and Mortality Rates

Prostate cancer is diagnosed every two minutes and fifteen seconds, and more than 217,730 new cases are expected in 2010. It is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in America among men.

An estimated 32,050 American men will lose their lives to prostate cancer this year.

Prostate cancer takes about one life every 18 minutes.

One in six American men is at lifetime risk of prostate cancer.

If a close relative has prostate cancer, a man's risk of the disease more than doubles. With two relatives, his risk increases five times. With three close relatives, his risk is about 97 percent.

In the next 24 hours, prostate cancer will claim the lives of 83 American men.

Prostate cancer represents 33 percent of all new cancer cases in American men. That's more new cases than any other cancer.

Survival Rates

Almost 100 percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer are still alive in five years.

About 90 percent of prostate cancer cases are found while the cancer is still either local or regional, and nearly 100 percent of these men are still alive five years after being diagnosed.

About 91 percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer are still alive after 10 years, and the 15-year survival rate is 76 percent.

Source: National Cancer Institute (NCI)