What is prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer occurs when cells in the prostate gland grow and divide in an abnormal way. Prostate cancer can be early (localised) where cancer cells have grown but not spread, locally advanced where cancers has spread to parts of the body close to the prostate or metastatic where the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body.

You can access further information about prostate cancer, including risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment from Cancer Council Victoria. You can also call our trusted cancer nurses on 13 11 20 for support and to learn about our range of services for people affected by cancer.

The Victorian Cancer Registry also operates an interactive web portal, Data Explorer, which provides more trends and statistics than published here.

How common is prostate cancer?

In 2023, 6378 Victorian males were diagnosed with prostate cancer. Currently, prostate cancer is diagnosed at a rate of 159 per 100,000 males. The median age at diagnosis of prostate cancer is 69 years (Figure 1 & 2). Accounting for 16.2% of all cancers diagnosed and 7.1% of all cancer-related deaths in 2023, prostate cancer was the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the 2nd most common cause of cancer-related deaths in Victorian males in 2023.

Trends in prostate cancer over time

Figure 3a shows for males between 2014 to 2023 the age standardised incidence rate of prostate cancer increased by an average of 2.4% per year.

Prostate cancer morphology

Figure 4 provides a summary of the different types of cells (morphology) which have caused prostate cancer among all cases. Most prostate cancer tumours, 93.7%, present as acinar carcinoma tumours.

Geographical variance in prostate cancer by local government area

Figure 5 demonstrates variation in age-standardised incidence rates of prostate cancer, by local government areas. Darker shading indicates areas with higher rates of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer in people born overseas

Figure 5 shows the age standardised incidence rates of invasive prostate cancer in Australian-born Victorian males compared to other major migrant groups, over the five-year period 2018 to 2022. The highest age standardised incidence rate of 177.3 was observed in those born in the North America region and lowest rate of 75 was observed in people born in the North-East Asia region.

Prostate cancer distribution by stage at diagnosis

Figure 6 shows the distribution of prostate cancer using the International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) Grade Group in 2023. ISUP grade groups categorise prostate cancer at diagnosis according to five grades from least aggressive (Grade 1) to most aggressive (Grade 5). These groups help clinicians decide how to manage the cancer. * Grade group 1 (Gleason 6 or less) indicates that the cancer is low risk; the cancer is slow growing and not aggressive. * Grade group 2-3 (Gleason score 7) indicates that the cancer is intermediate risk; the cancer is likely to grow faster and be mildly to moderately aggressive. * Grade group 4-5 (Gleason score 8-10) indicates that the cancer is high risk; the cancer is likely to grow quickly and be more aggressive.
Among males, ISUP 2 accounted for the largest proportion (29.6%) of new diagnoses and Metastatic (N1/M1) for the lowest proportion (5.3%) of new prostate cancer diagnoses.

Prostate cancer five-year relative survival

Figure 7 shows the change in 5-year survival for prostate cancer, and the 5-year survival trend for all cancers over the same time period. It demonstrates that five-year relative survival has increased for invasive prostate cancer between 1983-1987 and 2018-2022 from 53% to 95%.