[Epidemiology of prostate cancer and its implications in public health]

Among potentially fatal cancers, prostatic cancer has the peculiarity of a considerable difference between a high prevalence of characteristic histological lesions and a low clinical prevalence (low prevalence of clinical manifestations?). Its second peculiarity is a prevalence that clearly increases with age. These two notions, no doubt partially linked to slow tumour growth, explain the present difficulties in defining a screening or a diagnostic strategy for this type of cancer. Aging of the population, with the "baby boomers" reaching ages that are affected by prostatic cancer, diagnostic methods that despite progress are still imperfect, and a probable real increase in the incidence of cancer underline the need for epidemiologic studies on prostatic cancer and its consequences.