More than 100,000 new cases of prostate cancer are now detected in the U.S.A. and about 33,000 American men die from this disease each year. In the U.K. prostate cancer claimed 9,400 lives in 1992. The cause of the rise in cases is unknown. Alcohol and smoking are not implicated, but diet may well be. Thus the incidence amongst men eating a typical western diet is about 100 per 100,000 as compared to 6 per 100,000 in the Far East.
Many men are unaware that they have a prostate tumour.
Recent publicity in the U.S.A., fuelled by the treatment of Senator Robert Dole for prostate cancer, has heightened the awareness of the disease. The controversy over the benefits of screening for prostate cancer rages on. Now researchers at the University of Toronto have concluded that testing men with no overt symptoms of prostate cancer is inadvisable. They found that screening often precipitates invasive procedures and that the overall effect on quality of life is negative. Krahn, Murray D., et al.