PROSTATE cancer is the most common cancer in British blokes, with more than 40,000 NEW cases diagnosed every year.
It is also the third deadliest cancer in the UK and the disease develops slowly, meaning many men don't know they have it for several years. Here's what you need to know...
Alamy The prostate is a gland between the penis and the bladder, which only men have
What is prostate cancer?
The prostate is a small gland in the pelvis, which only men have.
It can be between the size of a walnut or satsuma and runs between the penis and the bladder, and around the urethra (the tube men pee and ejaculate through).
The main function of the prostate is to produce a think white fluid, which is mixed with sperm to create semen.
Prostate cancer occurs when the cells start to grow in an uncontrolled way.
Getty Images In the UK alone, 40,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year - and there are 11,000 deaths-a-year
Many men live long lives with prostate cancer but it is important to treat it and stop it spreading elsewhere in the body.
Prostate cancer currently kills 10,900 men-a-year and Prostate Cancer UK warn that this number could surge to 15,000-a-year by 2026.
The deadliest cancers These are the most common causes of cancer death, according to Cancer Research UK... 1. Lung cancer (22%) 2. Bowel cancer (10%) 3. Prostate cancer (7%) 3. Breast cancer (7%) These four cancers accounted for nearly half (46%) of cancer deaths in the UK in 2014.
What causes prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer is very common, and the causes are largely unknown.
Most cases occur in men aged 50 or over, while prostate cancer is more common in men of African or Caribbean descent, and less common in Asian guys.
There's also a familial link, so having a dad or brother who had prostate cancer increases your risk.
Recent research suggests obesity increases your risk of prostate cancer, while exercising regularly lowers it.
A high-calcium diet is also thought to increase your risk, while eating cooked tomatoes and Brazil nuts could lower it, but more research is needed into the effect of diet.
And research conducted in Australia suggests drinking just two pints of beer-a-day increases man's risk by a QUARTER.
Getty Images Prostate cancer is most common in men over the age of 50
What are the symptoms of prostate cancer?
In most cases, prostate cancer doesn't have any symptoms until the growth is big enough to put pressure on the urethra.
Symptoms include:
Needing to urinate more often, especially at night
Needing to rush to the toilet
Difficulty in starting to pee
Weak flow
Straining and taking a long time while peeing
Feeling that your bladder hasn't emptied fully
Many men's prostates get larger as they age because of the non-cancerous conditions prostate enlargement and benign prostatic hyperplasia.
In fact, these two conditions are more common than prostate cancer - but that doesn't mean the symptoms should be ignored.
The signs that the cancer has SPREAD include bone, back or testicular pain, loss of appetite and unexplained weight loss.
How is prostate cancer treated?
Assuming prostate cancer is caught in its early stages, treatment is not normally immediately necessary.
In these cases, doctors have a policy of "watchful waiting".
Treatment includes surgically removing the prostate, radiotherapy and hormone therapy.
One man was cured after being given testosterone in an experimental trial designed to shock tumours to death.
While new research suggests antidepressants stop prostate cancer spreading to the bones in 90 per cent of cases.
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Nearly all prostate cancer treatments come with the unwanted side effects of erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence, which is why many men choose to delay treatment.
The only exception is non-surgical laser treatment, which doesn't cause impotence - but is still in its trial stages.
If the cancer has already spread, it cannot be treated, and medical help is focused on prolonging life and relieving symptoms.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption 'I didn't want to be a statistic'
The number of men dying from prostate cancer has overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time in the UK, figures show.
An ageing population means more men are developing and dying from the disease.
Prostate Cancer UK says advances in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer are paying off, and increased funding could benefit prostate cancer.
The biggest cancer killers in the UK remain lung and bowel cancer, with prostate now in third place.
The latest figures from 2015 show there were 11,819 deaths from prostate cancer compared with 11,442 from breast cancer.
Although deaths from prostate cancer have been rising over the past 10 years or so, the mortality rate or the proportion of men dying from the disease has fallen - by 6% - between 2010 and 2015.
For breast cancer the mortality rate has come down by 10%, meaning deaths in women are declining more quickly.
Image copyright Prostate Cancer UK Image caption Gary Pettit works in the City of London
Gary Pettit was 43 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, five years ago, after a routine medical through work.
He had no symptoms - only an abnormally high PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test, which led to further tests and biopsies.
Within weeks, he had a seven-hour operation at the Royal Marsden in London to remove the cancer.
"I'm a lucky boy. I stored my sperm before the op and now we've got a little seven-month-old miracle baby, called Teddy. I can't say how lucky I've been."
Gary says recovering from the surgery took quite a while and there were some side-effects which he is still getting used to - but he is clear of cancer and keen to raise awareness among other men.
"It is still a taboo subject with men. They get shy and embarrassed, but it's so important to get checked out."
'Tremendous progress'
Angela Culhane, chief executive of the charity Prostate Cancer UK, said the disease currently received half the funding and half the research that is devoted to breast cancer.
She said developing better diagnostic tests that could be used as part of a nationwide screening programme would be a priority.
At present, there is no single, reliable test for prostate cancer - the PSA test, biopsies and physical examinations are all used.
Men with prostate cancer can also live for decades without symptoms or needing treatment because the disease often progresses very slowly.
What are the symptoms?
There can be few symptoms of prostate cancer in the early stages, and because of its location most symptoms are linked to urination:
needing to urinate more often, especially at night
needing to run to the toilet
difficulty in starting to urinate
weak urine flow or taking a long time while urinating
feeling your bladder has not emptied fully
Men with male relatives who have had prostate cancer, black men and men over 50 are at higher risk of getting the disease.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK
Ms Culhane said: "It's incredibly encouraging to see the tremendous progress that has been made in breast cancer over recent years.
"The introduction of precision medicine, a screening programme and a weighty research boost has no doubt played an important role in reducing the number of women who die from the disease.
"The good news is that many of these developments could be applied to prostate cancer and we're confident that with the right funding, we can dramatically reduce deaths within the next decade."
Living longer
Michael Chapman, director of information and involvement at Cancer Research UK, said: "The number of men getting and dying from prostate cancer is increasing mostly because of population growth and because we are living longer.
"We're dedicated to improving diagnosis and treatments for all cancers which is why we're investing in research to help develop more treatments to give more people more time this World Cancer Day on Sunday."
Prostate cancer Prostate cancer now kills more people than breast cancer, UK figures reveal Male illness now third most common cause of cancer death behind lung and bowel Prostate cancer killed 11,819 men in the UK in 2015. Photograph: Steve Gschmeissner/Getty Images/Science Photo Library
Prostate cancer has become the third most common cause of cancer death in the UK, overtaking breast cancer, despite improvements in survival rates for both.
The top cancer killer in the UK is lung cancer, which claimed 35,486 lives in 2015, followed by colorectal cancer, with a toll of 16,067 people.
However, new figures reveal that 11,819 men died in the UK from prostate cancer in 2015, overtaking breast cancer, which resulted in the deaths of 11,442 women. While not included in the data, about 80 men are also thought to have died from breast cancer in 2015.
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Angela Culhane, chief executive of the charity Prostate Cancer UK which collated the figures, said the number of prostate cancer deaths had risen as a result of an ageing population, while improvements in research and screening meant the same effect was not seen for breast cancer.
“We haven’t yet got the big game-changing advances that breast cancer has had in terms of the screening programme and also the precision medicine developments,” said Culhane, adding that breast cancer had received twice as much money for research as prostate cancer. “We need to bust that myth that it is just an old man’s disease that you don’t need to think is significant,” she added.
According to the charity, while 72,513 pieces of research had been published on prostate cancer since 1999, more than 146,000 had been published on breast cancer. Meanwhile, Prostate Cancer UK estimates that £120m is needed for research over the next eight years to halve the number of prostate cancer deaths expected by 2026.
“We want to learn from what they have been able to achieve [for breast cancer] and we can see the correlation between that investment in research and the progress that then follows in terms of reducing the number of deaths,” said Culhane.
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But despite the rise in the number of prostate cancer deaths, the bigger picture was positive, said Culhane. “If you compare to 10, 20 years ago, survival rates are generally getting better, that is certainly the case for both prostate and breast [cancer].”
Michael Chapman, director of information and involvement at Cancer Research UK, agreed. “The number of men getting and dying from prostate cancer is increasing mostly because of population growth and because we are living longer,” he said. “If we take into account our growing and ageing population, the death rate for both breast and prostate cancer is falling, though it is falling faster for breast than prostate cancer.”
Roger Wotton, chairman of Tackle Prostate Cancer, said. “This is a wake-up call for men and for the health service. Women have screening for breast cancer and this is one reason why mortality rates for prostate cancer are now higher than those for breast cancer. We need to get the prostate cancer mortality figures down, particularly as one third of men diagnosed already have advanced prostate cancer. We need earlier diagnosis and a better-informed testing regime.”
News that deaths from prostate cancer have overtaken those from breast cancer for the first time – with one man dying of it every 45 minutes – should be a wake-up call. I’ve spent my life studying and treating prostate cancer and then, aged 62, was myself diagnosed with it. In December, I celebrated five years free of the disease. Here are five ways to improve the prognosis for everyone.
Celebrities With names like Kylie Minogue and Angelina Jolie involved, it’s no surprise that the breast cancer lobby has been so powerful, receiving twice as much in government and charity funding as prostate cancer. Events like Movember have helped the cause, but a glamorous, David Beckham-type champion for prostate cancer could be a big motivator both in attracting public money and galvanising people to fund-raise.
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