Prostate cancer is one of the leading cancers among men in the United States.
Annually, it accounts for about 185,000 new cases of cancer, and about 39,000 deaths. Over 40, however, age-specific incidence and mortality rates rise rapidly, peaking in the oldest age groups. Like other screening innovations which allow us to detect disease earlier, use of the PSA test caused a temporary but dramatic increase in prostate cancer incidence in the United States. Rates peaked in 1992, six years after PSA s first use, and have been declining since. The introduction of the PSA test in the United States also led to an improvement in the stage distribution of prostate tumors at the time of diagnosis.