Data on deaths from prostate cancer in comparison to breast, cervix and others.
From John Holley <j.holley@apple.co.nz>, April 19 1996.
The April 22nd issue of Time has a special report or prostate cancer. It looks at a lot of famous (and infamous) men who have had the cancer and have survived it or been killed by it.
The article talks a lot about the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. Basically, all you have to do is see you doctor, provide a urine sample and wait for the results. While a low PSA level generally means your OK this is not always the case (as Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf found out) but a high level normally means you may have something to worry about. By 50, 4 out of 10 men have at least some cancerous cells in their prostate, but only 8% will develop symptoms that affect their life and only 3% will die of the cancer.
The test has been available since the 1980s.
Time has deaths per 100,000 for the disease (from WHO).
Apparently there is a conference on in Monanco in June, "The first International Consultation on Prostate Cancer", run by WHO.
Some further New Zealand data:
ICD category 185, Malignant neoplasm of prostate, 478 deaths in 1992
Of these:
This compares to
ICD category 174 Malignant neoplasm of female breast, 569 deaths in 1992
ICD category 180 Malignant neoplasm of cervix uteri, 84 deaths in 1992
ICD category 182 Malignant neoplasm of body of uterus, 51 deaths
ICD category 183 Malignant neoplasm of ovary and other uterine adnexa, 161 deaths
ICD category 184 Malignant neoplasm of other unspecified female genital organs, 20 deaths
Source: Table 6 in Mortality and Demographic Data 1992, Ministry of Health, New Zealand, 1994.
Stuart Birks
19 April, 1996