The Epidemiology of Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer is a major cause of disease and mortality among men, and each year 1.6 million men are diagnosed with and 366,000 men die of prostate cancer.In this review, we discuss the state of evidence for specific genetic, lifestyle, and dietary factors associated with prostate cancer risk.Given the biological heterogeneity of this cancer, we focus on risk factors for advanced or fatal prostate cancer.First, we provide descriptive epidemiology statistics and patterns for prostate cancer incidence and mortality around the world.This includes discussion of the impact of prostate-specific antigen screening on prostate cancer epidemiology.Next, we summarize evidence for selected risk factors for which there is strong or probable evidence of an association: genetics, obesity and weight change, physical activity, smoking, lycopene and tomatoes, fish, vitamin D and calcium, and statins.Finally, we highlight future directions for prostate cancer epidemiology research. DESCRIPTIVE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF PROSTATE CANCERT he global burden of prostate cancer is sub- stantial, ranking among the top five cancers for both incidence and mortality (Ferlay et al. 2015).Prostate cancer is characterized by striking geographical variation in both incidence and mortality rates.An examination of patterns in prostate cancer incidence and mortality across populations and over time provides insights into the role of individual risk factors and population screening behaviors in the epidemiology of this disease.