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Prostate Cancer Mortality Rates
Prostate cancer death rates have increased slowly from 14.4 deaths per 100,000
population in 1980 to 16.6 deaths per 100,000 population during 1992 (53).
Incidence rates have increased more rapidly, rising 50 percent over this period (71). This rapid rise in incidence is attributed to improved diagnostic
techniques that may be identifying tumors that will never become life threatening (71). Black American men have the highest prostate cancer incidence, and
possibly mortality, in the world (71). Their death rates are twice
those of white American men (78). Prostate cancer is primarily a
disease of older men, with over 80 percent of all diagnoses occurring over age 65 (71). Autopsy studies have estimated that 30 percent of men over age 50
have latent carcinoma of the prostate (79).
Very little is known about the etiology of prostate cancer, although age and race are
recognized as major risk factors (71, 79). Other proposed risk
factors include high circulating androgen levels (80), genetic
predisposition to the disease (78), and dietary factors such as
vitamin D deficiency (80) and high fat and vitamin A intake (79). Increased risk may be associated with exposure to cadmium and
employment in agricultural, nitrate fertilizer, or ferrochromium industries (79). Other studies have suggested that a history of venereal disease or
multiple sex partners also increases the risk of prostate cancer (78).
Scattered areas of high rates for white males have been noted previously in rural sect
ions of the northern States (8). In the1970's an apparent
clustering of high black male death rates emerged in the Carolinas and central Florida (9). The 1988-92 maps for the older ages confirm these patterns for white
and black men. Higher rates among younger men are seen along the Atlantic coast, but rates
for this age group are extremely low.
References:
(8) Pickle, L. W., Mason, T. J., Howard, N., et al. Atlas of U. S. Cancer Mortality
Among Whites: 1950-1980. Washington: USGPO (DHHS) Pub. No. (NIH) 87-2900). 1987.
(9)Pickle, L. W., Mason, T. J., Howard, N., et al. Atlas of U. S. Cancer Mortality Among
NonWhites: 1950-1980. Washington: USGPO (DHHS) Pub. No. (NIH) 90-1582). 1990.
(53) National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 1994. Hyattsville,
Maryland: Public Health Service. 1995.
(71) American Cancer Society, Inc. Cancer Facts and Figures 1994. Atlanta: American Cancer
Society, 1994
(78) Miller, B.A., Hayes, R.B., Potosky, A.L., et al. "Prostate". In: Miller,
B.A., Ries, L.A.G., Hankey, B.F., et al., eds. SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1973-1990.
Bethesda, Maryland: National Cancer Institute. Washington: US Government Printing Office.
XXII.1-XXII.15.1993.
(79) Hanks, G.E., Myers, C.E., Scardino P.T., Chapter 35: "Cancer of the
Prostate". In: DeVita, V.T., Jr., Hellman, S., Rosenberg, S.A., eds. Cancer:
Principles and Practice of Oncology. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. 1073-1113.
1993.
(80) Morton, R.A., Racial Differences in Adenocarcinoma of the Prostate in North American
Men. Urology, 44
(5): 637-45. 1994.
Atlas of United States Mortality by L.W. Pickle, M. Mungiole, G.K.
Jones, and A.A. White, US DHHS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National
Center for Health Statistics: Hyattsville, Maryland, Dec. 1996, DHHS Publication No. (PHS)
97-1015.
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