What is prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer occurs when cells in the prostate gland grow and divide in an abnormal way. Prostate cancer can be early (localised) where cancer cells have grown but not spread, locally advanced where cancers has spread to parts of the body close to the prostate or metastatic where the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body.
You can access further information about prostate cancer, including risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment from Cancer Council Victoria. You can also call our trusted cancer nurses on 13 11 20 for support and to learn about our range of services for people affected by cancer.
The Victorian Cancer Registry also operates an interactive web portal, Data Explorer, which provides more trends and statistics than published here.
How common is prostate cancer?
In 2022, 5821 Victorian males were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Currently, prostate cancer is diagnosed at a rate of 97.8 per 100,000 males. The median age at diagnosis of prostate cancer is 69 years (Figure 1 & 2). Accounting for 16% of all cancers diagnosed and 7.2% of all cancer-related deaths in 2022, prostate cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 2nd most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Victorian males in 2022.
Trends in prostate cancer over time
Figure 3 shows that for males between 1982 to 1990 the incidence of prostate cancer was stable, between 1990 to 1994 incidence increased by an average of 21.5% per year, between 1994 to 1999 incidence stabilised, between 1999 to 2009 incidence increased by an average of 6.4% per year, between 2009 to 2013 incidence declined by an average of 9.7% per year, and between 2013 to 2022 incidence increased by an average of 1.5% per year.
For males between 1982 to 1994 the mortality of prostate cancer increased by an average of 1.9% per year, between 1994 to 2010 mortality declined by an average of 2.1% per year, between 2010 to 2014 mortality declined by an average of 7.2% per year, and between 2014 to 2022 mortality stabilised.
Prostate cancer morphology
Figure 4 provides a summary of the different types of cells (morphology) which have caused prostate cancer among all cases. Most prostate cancer tumours, 93.5%, present as Acinar carcinoma tumours.
Geographical variance in prostate cancer by local government area
Figure 5 demonstrates variation in age-standardised incidence rates of prostate cancer, by local government areas. Darker shading indicates areas with higher rates of prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer in people born overseas
Figure 5 shows the age standardised incidence rates of invasive prostate cancer in Australian-born Victorian males compared to other major migrant groups, over the five-year period 2017 to 2021. The highest age standardised incidence rate of 120.3 was observed in those born in the North America region and lowest rate of 44.5 was observed in people born in the North-East Asia region.
Prostate cancer distribution by stage at diagnosis
Figure 6 shows the distribution of prostate cancer using the International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) Grade Group in 2022. ISUP grade groups categorise prostate cancer at diagnosis according to five grades from least aggressive (Grade 1) to most aggressive (Grade 5). These groups help clinicians decide how to manage the cancer. * Grade group 1 (Gleason 6 or less) indicates that the cancer is low risk; the cancer is slow growing and not aggressive. * Grade group 2-3 (Gleason score 7) indicates that the cancer is intermediate risk; the cancer is likely to grow faster and be mildly to moderately aggressive. * Grade group 4-5 (Gleason score 8-10) indicates that the cancer is high risk; the cancer is likely to grow quickly and be more aggressive.
Among males, ISUP 2 accounted for the largest proportion (28.3%) of new diagnoses and ISUP 4 for the lowest proportion (5.4%) of new prostate cancer diagnoses.
Prostate cancer five-year relative survival
Figure 7 shows the change in 5-year survival for prostate cancer, and the 5-year survival trend for all cancers over the same time period. It demonstrates that five-year relative survival has increased for invasive prostate cancer between 1982-1986 and 2017-2021 from 49% to 95%.
