How Common is Prostate Cancer?
Answer
Every year in the U.S., about 190,000 men learn they have prostate cancer, the walnut-shaped organ that has the consistency of a water chestnut and governs the speed, strength, and frequency of urination and ejaculation.
That means about one in every six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. About one in 35 men will die of the disease. That's about 27,000 men annually.
Prostate cancer will hit just about every man if he lives long enough. It's a common disease in older men, but the concern really centers on its aggressiveness in any particular case. Many men can live twenty years with slow-growing forms, which tend to occur in older men, though the aggressive form (more common in younger men) is more often deadly.