ACS launches National Prostate Cancer Roundtable to address increasing incidence

The American Cancer Society (ACS) has announced the launch of a National Prostate Cancer Roundtable to address the “alarming” increases in prostate cancer incidence.¹

The ACS has projected that in 2024, there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States, and 35,250 men will die from the disease.

This marks the ACS’s seventh national roundtable to date.

"More than 25 years ago, together with partner organizations across the country, we launched our first national roundtable with the intention of improving the lives of people with cancer and their families by prioritizing equitable access to the prevention, screening/early detection, and diagnosis of cancer," said, Karen E. Knudsen, PhD, MBA, CEO of the ACS and the ACS Cancer Action Network, in the news release.¹ "That work will help pave the way for us to lower the rise in prostate cancer diagnoses and afford men the opportunity to prevent and survive prostate cancer."

According to the news release, the National Prostate Cancer Roundtable will engage multi-sector organizations and diverse communities to “promote an increased understanding of prostate cancer risk and screening needs; increase access to timely, high-quality and compassionate screening; identify the diagnosis, follow-up treatment, and supportive care needed to improve survival and quality of life; and reduce health disparities.”

The launch of this roundtable follows the release of the ACS’s annual Cancer Statistics report earlier this year, which pointed to the increase of new prostate cancer cases in the United States.²

According to the report, the incidence of prostate cancer has increased by 3% per year overall since 2014, and the incidence of advanced stage disease has increased by about 5% per year. The increase in prostate cancer incidence overall is primarily driven by the 4%-5% increases per year in regional-stage and distant-stage diagnoses that began as early as 2011. In 2014, the rate of localized-stage disease was 73.5 per 100,000, which increased to 84.8 per 100,000 in 2019, although the trend has not yet reached statistical significance.

The ACS has projected that in 2024, there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States, and 35,250 men will die from the disease. Across all incident cases of cancer in men, prostate cancer alone will account for 29% of cancer diagnoses in 2024. The disease is also estimated to account for 11% of all cancer-specific deaths in men.

Additional data show that approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer throughout their lifetime (probability, 12.9%), and 1 in 44 men will die from the disease.³ In Black men, the incidence of prostate cancer is 68% higher than in White men. Black men also have a 2-fold higher mortality rate for the disease compared with White men.

"The urgency to increase awareness about prostate cancer is underscored by our most recent data and analysis," said William L. Dahut, MD, chief scientific officer at the ACS, in the news release.¹ "Our prostate cancer roundtable will directly address these shifts in the disease and improve prostate cancer outcomes for all men—especially Black men, who carry a disproportionate burden of occurrences and deaths in the United States."

Previous roundtables created by the ACS have touched on barriers to cancer care, HPV vaccination, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer. Last year, these roundtables conducted activities that engaged 1248 partner organizations, trained 4720 people, and more.

You can learn more about the National Prostate Cancer Roundtable here.

References

1. American Cancer Society launches the National Prostate Cancer Roundtable to address an alarming rise in diagnoses. News release. American Cancer Society. September 5, 2024. Accessed September 6, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/american-cancer-society-launches-the-national-prostate-cancer-roundtable-to-address-an-alarming-rise-in-diagnoses-302237886.html

2. Siegel RL, Giaquinto AN, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2024. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. doi:10.3322/caac.21820

3. Key statistics for prostate cancer. American Cancer Society. Accessed September 6, 2024. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/prostate-cancer/about/key-statistics.html