Prostate Cancer Cases Climb 3% a Year as More Men Get Screened, ACS Report Finds
The American Cancer Society estimates 333,830 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 2026, with 36,320 men expected to die of the disease, according to its Cancer Statistics 2026 report released September 1. The report also found that new cases rose by about 3% per year between 2014 and 2022, with the steepest increase occurring in advanced-stage diagnoses.
Timed to September's Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, the report shows a steady upward march in diagnoses. The ACS says the increase is largely explained by more men coming forward for screening, which surfaces early-stage cancers that would otherwise go undetected. One in eight American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, and the disease remains the second-leading cause of cancer death among American men, after lung cancer.
"We're seeing two things happen at once: more men are being diagnosed with prostate cancer, and a growing share of those cases are happening at a more advanced stage," said Dr. William Dahut, the ACS's chief scientific officer. He warned that screening conversations are happening too late for too many men, particularly those at high risk. While the rise in screening creates opportunities for early intervention and better outcomes, the ACS believes too many men are still not being screened early enough.
Early detection is what moves the needle on survival. SEER data cited by the ACS shows five-year relative survival above 99% for localized disease, compared with 38% once the cancer has spread to distant organs. In the United Kingdom, survival has roughly tripled over the past 50 years, according to Cancer Research UK figures: more than three-quarters of patients — 78% — now survive ten years or more, up from about one in five in the 1970s.
A Swedish study published in the July 2025 issue of the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network reinforces the point. Researchers tracked 62,839 men diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer between 2000 and 2020 and treated according to NCCN guidelines. About 90% of those with low-risk disease were likely to survive their cancer for the rest of their lives, and men with low- or intermediate-risk cancer were six times more likely to die of other causes than of prostate cancer.
Risk is not distributed evenly. Compared with white men, Black men are nearly 70% more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from it, and they tend to develop the disease at younger ages. Risk rises rapidly after age 50. More than 3.5 million American men are living today with a prostate cancer diagnosis, and most men diagnosed with the disease do not die from it.
The ACS is using Prostate Cancer Awareness Month to urge men to talk with their doctors about personal risk and whether screening makes sense for them. Screening is not one-size-fits-all, the organization stresses: risk depends on age, race, family history, and inherited gene changes. Dahut's message is blunt — the first conversation with a doctor should happen before symptoms appear, not after. Regular screening can save lives by catching the cancer early, when treatment is most likely to succeed.