[Epidemiology of prostatic carcinoma. From the Work Group Urology in the Munich Tumor Register]

At approximately 11%, carcinoma of the prostate is the third leading cause of tumor-related death. The etiology of the disease remains unknown. In 1989, 9,074 deaths from this disease were recorded in the Federal Republic of Germany. With a five-year survival rate of 75%, carcinoma of the prostate is one of the cancers with a favorable prognosis. The number of new cases occurring annually in the Federal Republic of Germany (formerly West Germany) is probably between 17,000 and 19,000, or roughly 60 per 100,000 men. The (true) number of prostatic cancer patients is about fivefold, approximately 90,000. The first population-related figures for such clinical parameters as initial symptomatology, distribution of stage and the pattern of progression are now available from the Munich Tumor Registry. Another such parameter is the figure of 15% describing patients in whom bone metastases presented at the time of the diagnosis.