Prostate Cancer: Who's at Risk?

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer found in American men, other than skin cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 230,900 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in the year 2004.

Preferred Care cares about helping you (your husband, your father or your friend) prevent prostate cancer. While doctors cannot explain why one man gets prostate cancer and another does not, researchers are studying factors that may increase the risk of this disease.

Studies have found that the following risk factors are associated with prostate cancer:

Age
The chance of getting prostate cancer goes up as a man gets older.

Race
For unknown reasons, prostate cancer is more common among African-American men than among white men. And African-American men are twice as likely to die of the disease.

Nationality
Prostate cancer is most common in North America and northwestern Europe. It is less common in Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America.

Diet
Men who eat a lot of red meat or have a lot of high-fat dairy products in their diet seem to have a greater chance of getting prostate cancer. These men also tend to eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Doctors are not sure which of these factors causes the risk to go up.

Exercise
Getting enough exercise and keeping a healthy weight may help reduce prostate cancer risk.

Family History
Men with close family members (father or brother) who have had prostate cancer are more likely to get it themselves, especially if their relatives were young when they got the disease.

Informational Source: American Cancer Society.
Posted: April 2005

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

Find more information about prostate cancer in Preferred Care's Health Encyclopedia.

Many of the National Cancer Institute's publications can be viewed online for the latest information on prostate cancer.