Epidemiology of prostatic cancer in East Asia

Prostate cancer has become one of the most common malignancies in the world. The incidence of prostate cancer has rapidly increasing over the last decade in East Asia. In Japan, age-adjusted death rates due to prostate cancer rose from 4.4 to 8.6 per 100,000 between 1980 and 1998. Recent research has focused on age, race-related differences, patterns of familial aggregation, genetic factors, hormones, and diet. Epidemiological approach has identified several possible risk factors that may be useful for the prevention of prostate cancer and targeting high-risk individuals for early detection.