After a cancer diagnosis, statistics about the disease take on greater importance. Even if it’s not the cancer you personally have. Early detection remains the best way to address any sort of cancer, as evidenced by a new report that just came out.

The American Cancer Society released “Prostate Cancer Statistics, 2025,” a report on current prostate cancer occurrence and outcomes in the United States.

According to the study, prostate cancer incidence rates have reversed from a decline of 6.4% per year during 2007 through 2014 to an increase of 3% annually during 2014 through 2021, with the steepest increase (4.6%-4.8% per year) for advanced-stage diagnoses.

Simultaneously, mortality declines slowed from 3% to 4% per year during the 1990s and 2000s to 0.6% per year over the past decade.

These major findings are to be published in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

The report shows wide disparities. Despite steep declines, mortality rates for prostate cancer are two times higher for Black men than white men, versus 67% higher incidence rates. Likewise, Native American men have 12% higher prostate cancer mortality than white men, despite 13% lower incidence.

“Our research highlighting the continued increases in prostate cancer incidence and persistent racial disparities underscores the need for redoubled efforts to understand the etiology of prostate cancer and optimize early detection,” said Tyler Kratzer, MPH, associate scientist, cancer surveillance research at the American Cancer Society, and lead author of the study. “At age 50, per ACS guidelines, all men should have a conversation with their health care provider about the benefits and harms of screening, but Black men and those with a family history of prostate cancer should have that conversation at age 45.”

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosis among men in the U.S., accounting for 30% of male cancers in 2025, and is the second-leading cancer death in men behind lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. This year, ACS estimates there will be 313,780 new cases of prostate cancer and 35,770 deaths.

According to the study, distant‐stage disease is increasing in men of every age, including by nearly 3% per year in those under 55 and 6% per year in men 55 years and older. The five-year relative survival rate for distant-stage prostate cancer is 38% but approaches 100% for earlier-stage diagnoses.

Other key findings from the report include:

American Indian and Alaska Native men are the most likely to be diagnosed with distant stage disease (12% versus 8% among white men).

Prostate cancer mortality ranges from 36.9 deaths per 100,000 among Black men to 8.8 among Asian American and Pacific Islander men. American Indian and Alaska Native men have the second-highest mortality rates (20.6), with white (18.4) and Hispanic (15.4) men ranking third and fourth among broadly defined racial and ethnic groups.

“Our report underscores the need to redouble efforts to optimize early diagnosis that minimizes overdetection and to also ensure those strategies reach Black and Native American communities in particular,” said Rebecca Siegel, MPH, senior scientific director, cancer surveillance research at the American Cancer Society and senior author of the report. “All men should have the same opportunity to survive this common cancer.”

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society, supports the Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening for High-risk Insured Men (PSA Screening for HIM) Act, federal legislation that would waive cost-sharing requirements such as deductibles, copayments and coinsurance for prostate cancer screening tests for men at the highest risk.

“Out-of-pocket costs such as co-pays can be a barrier to accessing early detection,” said Lisa A. Lacasse, president of ACS CAN. “No one should be at a disadvantage against cancer. The PSA Screening for HIM Act will help remove a major obstacle that can prevent those at high risk for the disease from getting the screening tests they need to find prostate cancer at the earliest, most treatable stage.”

Clearly, anything that can be done to increase the chances of finding cancer early would be good.

Too often with cancer, waiting can be a costly mistake.

• Joan Oliver is the former Northwest Herald assistant news editor. She has been associated with the Northwest Herald since 1990. She can be reached at jolivercolumn@gmail.com.