Prostate cancer mortality statistics

Prostate cancer is the 4th most common cause of cancer death in the UK (2010), accounting for around 7% of all cancer deaths. It is the second most common cause of cancer death among men (2010) in the UK, after lung cancer. It accounts for around 13% of male deaths from cancer.1-3

In 2010, there were 10,721 deaths from prostate cancer in the UK (Table 2.1).1-3 The crude mortality rate shows that there are around 35 prostate cancer deaths for every 100,000 men in the UK.

The European age-standardised rates (AS rates) of prostate cancer do not differ significantly between the constituent countries of the UK (Table 2.1). This is in contrast to prostate cancer incidence rates, which are significantly lower in Scotland, and supports the suggestion that much of the variation in incidence is due to differences in the use of Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) testing.

Table 2.1: Prostate Cancer (C61), Number of Deaths, Crude and European Age-Standardised (AS) Mortality Rates per 100,000 Population, UK, 2010

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*95% LCL and 95% UCL are the 95% lower and upper confidence limits around the AS Rate

The latest analyses of prostate cancer mortality rates throughout the UK report only modest variation between cancer networks.4,5

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Prostate cancer mortality is strongly related to age with the highest mortality rates being in older men. In the UK between 2008 and 2010, an average of 93% of prostate cancer deaths were in men aged 65 years and over, and more than half (54%) were in the 80’s and over (Figure 2.1).1-3 Age-specific mortality rates increase sharply from the age of 60, reaching a peak at age 85+.

Figure 2.1: Prostate Cancer (C61) Average Number of Deaths Per Year and Age-Specific Mortality Rates, UK, 2008-2010

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Prostate cancer overtakes lung cancer to be the most common cause of death from cancer in men aged 85 and over, with almost a third (31%) of prostate cancer deaths occurring in this age group in 2008-2010.1-3

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In line with increasing incidence rates, prostate cancer mortality rates have also overall increased in the UK since the early 1970s - though this includes both an increase and decrease in rates during that time (Figure 2.2).1-3   The European AS mortality rates were fairly stable at around 20 deaths per 100,000 men during the 1970s, but increased throughout the 1980s to reach a peak of 30 per 100,000 in the early 1990s; since then, mortality rates have fallen by around a fifth to an average of 24 deaths per 100,000 men in 2008-2010.

Part of the decrease in mortality may be attributed to PSA testing, though improvements in treatment, changes in cancer registration coding, and changes to the classification of prostate cancer deaths could all have played a part.6-11

Figure 2.2: Prostate Cancer (C61), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, UK, 1971-2010 

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Since the early 1990s in the UK, prostate cancer mortality rates have overall decreased for all of the broad age groups except for men aged 85 and over (Figure 2.3).1-3 Between 1990-92 and 2008-2010, European AS mortality rates decreased by 21% in men aged 45-54 years, 25% in 55-64 year-olds, 29% in 65-74 year-olds, and 25% in 75-84 year-olds; the mortality trend for men aged 85+ shows both decreases and increases between 1990-1992 and 2008-2010, but overall the rates increased by 2%. Some studies have shown that older men are less likely to receive radical treatment,7,12,13 which may explain the relatively little change in mortality rates over time for this age group.

Figure 2.3: Prostate Cancer (C61), European Age-Standardised Mortality Rates, By Age, UK, 1971-2010

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Worldwide cancer mortality data are collated and distributed by the World Health Organisation.14 Like with the collation of incidence data, there is wide variation in the coverage of death registration systems across the world, with two-thirds of the world’s populations living in regions that are not covered by mortality statistics, as well as variation in the quality of the cause of death information itself.15 Nonetheless, the International Agency for Research on Cancer routinely uses the available data to estimate worldwide cancer mortality.16

Prostate cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer death in men worldwide (ninth in both sexes combined), estimated to be responsible for almost 258,000 deaths in 2008 (more than 3% of the total for both sexes combined). Since PSA testing is likely to have a much greater effect on prostate cancer incidence than on mortality, there is much less variation in mortality rates between the more and less developed regions of the world (11 and 6 per 100,000 in 2008, respectively) compared with incidence rates (62 and 12 per 100,000, respectively). Prostate cancer mortality rates are highest in the Caribbean and lowest in Eastern and South-Central Asia, with around ten-fold variation in World AS mortality rates between the regions of the world (Figure 2.4).16

Figure 2.4: Prostate Cancer (C61), World Age-Standardised Incidence and Mortality Rates, World Regions, 2008 Estimates

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Within the 27 countries of the European Union (EU-27), the highest prostate cancer European AS mortality rates for 2008 are estimated to be in Estonia (37 deaths per 100,000 men) and the lowest in Malta (12 deaths per 100,000 men) (Figure 2.5).17

Figure 2.5: Prostate Cancer (C61), European Age-Standardised Incidence and Mortality Rates, EU-27 countries, 2008 Estimates

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The UK prostate cancer mortality rate is estimated to be the 9th highest in Europe (EU-27).17

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There is evidence of a small association of prostate cancer mortality with deprivation. European AS mortality rates are reported to be around 13% higher for men living in the least deprived areas of England and Wales as compared with the most deprived,18 though a similar relationship has not been reported in Scotland or Northern Ireland.19,20 This is in contrast to prostate cancer incidence, which shows a much stronger association with deprivation.19,20

section updated 25/06/12