How Men Can Drop Their Risk of Lethal Prostate Cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer (besides skin cancer) in American men. To me, the statistics are frightening: The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be nearly 250,000 new cases of prostate cancer and just over 34,000 deaths from the disease this year. Approximately one in eight of us will be found with prostate cancer during our lifetime.
Age is a significant risk factor, with about 60 percent of cases occurring among men 65 years and older; the cancer is rare among men under age 40. Non-Hispanic Black men are at higher risk than others.
A risk factor is something that raises your chances of getting a disease such as cancer. Let’s look at some of the risk factors for prostate cancer. We begin with age (please see above). Next up is race, with the disease more common in African-Americans and Caribbean men of African ancestry than in men of other races. Asian-American and Hispanic/Latino men have a lower risk.
What about geography? Prostate cancer is most common in Australia, North America, northwestern Europe, and the Caribbean. It is less common in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. While more screening in specific locations may increase the apparent incidence, lifestyle likely plays a role, too.
Inherited genetics matters, with prostate cancer running in some families. If you have a brother or father with prostate cancer, your risk may be double the general population. Having several relatives with prostate cancer may further increase this risk, as does the occurrence of prostate cancer in family members at a young age. Nevertheless, most prostate cancers are in men without a family history of the disease.
Speaking of family history, several gene changes (mutations) appear to raise prostate cancer risk. For example, BRCA1 or BRCA2 (breast cancer genes 1 or 2) raise risk but likely account for only a small percentage of cases. Other prostate cancer risk-raising conditions include Lynch syndrome (hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer).
Drop Your Risk of Lethal Prostate Cancer.
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