More prostate cancer deaths than breast cancer

New figures show that the number of men dying from prostate cancer has overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time in the UK.

In 2015, deaths by prostate cancer, behind only lung and bowel cancer as the biggest cancer killers in the UK, there were 11,819 deaths from prostate cancer compared with 11,442 from breast cancer. Prostate Cancer UK suggest that advances in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer are paying off, and similar funding and focus could also benefit prostate cancer treatment.

Since 1999, more than 146,000 had been published on breast cancer compared to 72,513 pieces of research on prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer UK estimates that £120 million is needed for research over the next eight years to halve the number of prostate cancer deaths expected by 2026.

Angela Culhane, chief executive of the charity Prostate Cancer UK, said: “It's incredibly encouraging to see the tremendous progress that has been made in breast cancer over recent years. The introduction of precision medicine, a screening programme and a weighty research boost has no doubt played an important role in reducing the number of women who die from the disease. The good news is that many of these developments could be applied to prostate cancer and we're confident that with the right funding, we can dramatically reduce deaths within the next decade."

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This story was first published in digitalhealth.net

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