[Descriptive epidemiology of prostate cancer in Japan and Western countries]

We summarized descriptive epidemiology of prostate cancer in Japan and compared it with that in Western countries. In Japan, the mortality and incidence rates have been increasing particularly in the elderly. The age-adjusted mortality rate (per 100,000 population) rose from 0.5 in 1950 to 8.6 in 2000 and so did the age-adjusted incidence rate from 7.1 in 1975 to 19.9 in 1998 (rates were adjusted to the 1985 Japanese Model Population). In 1993 to 1997, the age-adjusted mortality rate in Japan was about one fifth to half of those in Western countries. Although PSA(prostate-specific antigen) screening may have apparently elevated the incidence rate in the US and some European countries, we did not find such a screening effect in Japan.