Prostate cancer death risk falls 24% in seven years as diagnoses in England top 60,000

For the first time on record, more than 60,000 men in England were diagnosed with prostate cancer in a single year — and yet the chance of dying from the disease has fallen by nearly a quarter over the past seven years, according to the largest audit of prostate cancer care in England and Wales.

England recorded 60,827 new prostate cancer diagnoses in 2025, a 7% increase from the 57,029 cases logged the previous year, according to the National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA), a collaboration between the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In Wales, diagnoses rose 12% from 2023 to 2024, reaching 2,700.

The headline finding comes from an analysis of 45,339 men newly diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer — disease that has spread beyond the prostate and is currently incurable — in England between 2015 and 2022. Three-year mortality in that group dropped from 56% for those diagnosed in 2015 to 47% for those diagnosed in 2022. Translated into a single figure, the risk of dying from prostate cancer dropped by almost a quarter (24%) over those seven years, according to the LSHTM-led study published in BJU International.

This is genuinely encouraging news for men diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer. Looking at more than 45,000 men across England, we found survival has steadily improved: more than half of men now survive at least three years after diagnosis, up from 44% in 2015, and the risk of dying from prostate cancer fell by almost a quarter.— Arjun Nathan, doctoral student and urology resident surgeon, LSHTM

Researchers attribute the improvement to a combination of factors: the rollout of newer treatments through the NHS — including the chemotherapy drug docetaxel and hormone therapies enzalutamide and abiraterone — as well as better imaging to identify how far the cancer has spread, faster access to specialist teams, and earlier diagnosis. The NPCA report describes the shift toward 'treatment intensification', combining therapies rather than using them sequentially, as a key driver.

Clinical trials have shown that adding newer treatments including chemotherapy and novel hormone therapy, which is known as combination therapy, helps men live longer. Our new findings show these benefits are now reaching men in everyday NHS care, not just in clinical trials.— Arjun Nathan, doctoral student and urology resident surgeon, LSHTM

The picture is not uniformly positive. Cases of metastatic prostate cancer — the hardest-to-treat form — climbed from 5,696 in 2024 to 6,312 in 2025. Despite the survival gains, nearly half of men with incurable advanced disease still die within three years of diagnosis. Hospital-level treatment decisions also varied widely, the NPCA found: roughly 7% of men with low-risk disease in England underwent radical treatment that may amount to overtreatment, while just 69% of men with high-risk or locally advanced disease received radical treatment, a gap that raises concerns about undertreatment.

But almost half of men still do not survive beyond three years, and not everyone who could benefit is receiving these treatments yet. Anyone diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer should talk to their care team about whether combination treatment is right for them.— Arjun Nathan, doctoral student and urology resident surgeon, LSHTM

Behind this data are the stories of many more dads, husbands, brothers and friends living longer, better lives thanks to research breakthroughs. Right now, far too many men get a diagnosis at a later stage when treatment options are more limited and the fact that nearly half of men still die within three years remains a tragedy.— Natalia Norori, head of data and evidence, Prostate Cancer UK

The rise in overall diagnoses is partly explained by more men coming forward for testing, with awareness campaigns — including high-profile advocacy from figures such as Sir Chris Hoy, Lord Cameron, and Jeremy Clarkson following their own diagnoses — credited with encouraging uptake. Men diagnosed with lower-risk, stage 1 disease accounted for a particularly notable share of that growth, the NPCA report found.

A separate concern flagged this week by global cancer experts: prostate cancer cases among men under 50 in England have risen sharply. Analysis of NHS data by the World Cancer Research Fund found 158 such cases in 2001 — one per 100,000 men under 50 — rising to 640 cases in 2023, equivalent to 3.6 per 100,000, according to Yahoo News.

The debate over screening sits at the centre of the policy response. The UK Government this year opted against broad prostate cancer screening, instead approving a more limited programme aimed at men who carry a specific BRCA2 gene variant and have a relevant family history. Prostate Cancer Research and other campaign groups are calling for a national programme that would cover all men at elevated risk — among them Black men and those with a family history of the disease — with the longer-term goal of reaching all men at risk.

We urgently need a national screening programme that covers all men at high risk, ultimately expanding to all men at risk in the future, to give them the best possible chance of an early diagnosis.— David James, director of patient projects and influencing, Prostate Cancer Research

The US context adds weight to the urgency. A 2025 American Cancer Society analysis published in a peer-reviewed journal found that prostate cancer leads all cancer diagnoses in American men, representing 30% of male cancers in 2025, and ranks second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death in men. After a period of declining incidence between 2007 and 2014 — linked to reduced PSA screening following recommendations against it — US prostate cancer incidence has been rising again at 3.0% annually since 2014, with distant-stage disease increasing fastest. Black men in the US face double the prostate cancer mortality of White men, with 67% higher incidence, while American Indian and Alaska Native men have 12% higher mortality despite 13% lower incidence, according to the same analysis.

More and more patients are now being diagnosed with prostate cancer at an early stage. However, the number of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer that has already spread to the rest of the body is not coming down. For that reason, the results showing improvements in outcomes for these patients are so important.— Jan van der Meulen, professor of clinical epidemiology, LSHTM, and chair of the National Prostate Cancer Audit team

Most men can be cured, particularly if the cancer is found early, emphasising that early detection is crucial.— Prof Noel Clarke, clinical surgical lead, NPCA

The broader cancer survival picture offers context for where prostate cancer sits. The American Cancer Society's 75th annual Cancer Statistics report found that the overall 5-year cancer survival rate has risen from 50% in the mid-1970s to 70% today. Prostate cancer's 5-year relative survival rate — across all stages — stood at 98% for the 2015–2021 diagnosis period, up from 68% in 1975–1977, according to cancer.org. That headline figure reflects the high proportion of cases caught at an early, treatable stage; outcomes for metastatic disease remain far worse.

Why it matters — Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men on both sides of the Atlantic, and these findings show that treatment advances are translating into real survival gains at population scale — but rising case numbers, unequal access to newer therapies, and a lack of broad screening mean tens of thousands of men are still being diagnosed too late to be cured.

Reported by yahoo.com, uk.news.yahoo.com, medicalxpress.com, hqip.org.uk, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, cancer.org