At the beginning of the twentieth century male life expectancy was 57 years. At the end of the century it was 72 years. For most of written history, life expectancy was about 35 years, but technological advances and hygiene have had a tremendous impact. Old age is now a moving threshold. As the population's general health improves and men avoid death from other causes, the risk of prostate cancer becomes more significant and awareness about such risk needs to be intensified.
Most men die with prostate cancer rather than from prostate cancer.
This statement is a piece of misinformation in itself. Because it ignores the fact that the prostate cancer that kills men is not the type of cancer commonly found at autopsy of men who die of other causes without ever showing any sign or symptom of prostate cancer. The type of cancer found merely at autopsy IS NOT histologically or in size comparable to the clinically significant cancer that progresses - and does so at a rate that causes death . All too conveniently, critics ignore this simple fact and use the prevalence of cancerous prostate cells to misinform and confuse the public. So those other possible causes of PSA rise have to be excluded before cancer is diagnosed.