Australia Trailing In Fight Against Prostate Cancer

More than 3000 men died from prostate cancer in 2011, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show. Image via Shutterstock.

If Australia had the same success fighting prostate cancer as the USA, 11,000 deaths attributed to our most commonly diagnosed cancer could have been avoided since 1990.

That’s the findings announced today by Cancer Council NSW. The findings were published in the World Journal of Urology, revealing that prostate cancer deaths in the USA have reduced by 50 per cent while in Australia they have fallen by 30 per cent since the early 1990s.

“While the decline in prostate cancer deaths is clearly evidence of progress being made in controlling prostate cancer, our understanding of the precise reasons for this improvement is limited, says Associate Professor, David Smith, Cancer Council NSW. “Most of the success is likely due to advancement in treatment.”

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It is projected that there will be 25,000 new cases of prostate cancer in Australia by 2020 and over 200,000 men living with a diagnosis.

"It's not entirely clear why we are doing poorly," says Associate Professor Smith.

"It's probably related to differences in treatment, especially for those with high-risk disease.
"The difference that's emerging between Australia and the US is really quite stark, something is systematically different between the way in which we are managing the care of men with prostate cancer."

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The disparity could not be attributed to better testing in the US because the drop in mortality occurred too soon to be a result of prostate-specific antigen [PSA] testing.

The affect of such testing takes 10 years to be felt, whereas the drop in mortality occurred six years after PSA testing was introduced in Australia.

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More than 3000 men died from prostate cancer in 2011, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures show.

About 92 per cent of men diagnosed survived five years from diagnosis in 2006-2010.