Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men by a wide margin. An estimated 333,830 new cases will be diagnosed in the U.S. in 2026 alone, accounting for nearly 16% of all new cancer diagnoses. That’s roughly three times more cases than the second most common cancer in men, lung cancer.
How Prostate Cancer Compares to Other Male Cancers
The five most common cancers diagnosed in men in the U.S., based on projected 2026 estimates from the National Cancer Institute’s SEER program:
- Prostate: 333,830 new cases
- Lung and bronchus: 110,910 new cases
- Colon and rectum: 84,160 new cases
- Melanoma (skin): 65,400 new cases
- Bladder: 64,730 new cases
Prostate cancer’s dominance in incidence doesn’t mean it’s the deadliest. Lung cancer kills far more men each year despite being diagnosed less often, because it tends to be caught at later stages and is harder to treat once it spreads. Prostate cancer, by contrast, is frequently slow-growing and often caught while still confined to the prostate gland. Many men diagnosed with prostate cancer ultimately die of something else entirely.
Who Gets Prostate Cancer
Age is the single biggest risk factor. The older you are, the higher your chance of developing prostate cancer, and the vast majority of cases are diagnosed in men over 50. Two other factors significantly increase risk: being African American and having a family history of the disease.
African American men are more likely to develop prostate cancer than men of any other racial group in the U.S. They’re also more than twice as likely to die from it, tend to be diagnosed at younger ages, and often have more advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. The reasons for this disparity are complex, involving a combination of genetic, socioeconomic, and healthcare access factors.
Family history matters too, particularly if a first-degree relative (father, brother, or son) has had prostate cancer. Your risk is also considered elevated if you were diagnosed before age 55, or if your family has a pattern of breast, ovarian, or pancreatic cancers, which can signal inherited genetic changes that raise prostate cancer risk as well.
Symptoms to Recognize
Early-stage prostate cancer often produces no symptoms at all. When signs do appear, they typically involve changes in urination: needing to go more frequently, difficulty starting the stream, or waking up multiple times at night to urinate. Blood in the urine or semen can also be an early sign.
These symptoms overlap heavily with benign prostate enlargement, which is extremely common in older men and is not cancer. That overlap is part of what makes prostate cancer tricky. You can’t tell the difference based on symptoms alone, which is why screening conversations matter.
More advanced prostate cancer can cause urinary leakage and erectile dysfunction. If the cancer has spread to bones, which is one of the more common sites for prostate cancer to metastasize, bone pain (especially in the back, hips, or pelvis) may develop.
Screening: What’s Recommended
Prostate cancer screening revolves around a blood test called the PSA test, which measures levels of a protein produced by the prostate. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that men aged 55 to 69 make an individual decision about PSA screening after discussing the trade-offs with their doctor. For men 70 and older, the Task Force recommends against routine PSA screening.
The reason screening isn’t a blanket recommendation is that PSA testing catches many cancers that would never cause harm during a man’s lifetime. Detecting those slow-growing cancers can lead to biopsies, anxiety, and treatments with real side effects (like urinary problems and erectile dysfunction) for a disease that may never have become dangerous. On the other hand, screening can also catch aggressive cancers early, when they’re most treatable. That balancing act is why it’s framed as a personal decision rather than a one-size-fits-all guideline.
The digital rectal exam, once a standard part of prostate screening, is no longer recommended as a screening tool because there isn’t enough evidence that it improves outcomes. The major clinical trials on prostate screening either dropped it or never included it.
Men at higher risk, particularly African American men and those with a strong family history, often benefit from starting the screening conversation earlier than 55. Several medical organizations suggest these groups discuss screening in their 40s.
Survival and Outlook
Prostate cancer has one of the highest survival rates of any cancer. When caught while still localized to the prostate or the nearby region, the five-year survival rate approaches 100%. Even when considering all stages combined, the outlook is significantly better than most other common cancers. The key factor is whether the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body at the time of diagnosis. Distant-stage prostate cancer is far more serious, but it represents a minority of cases because most prostate cancers are detected before they spread.
Treatment options range widely depending on how aggressive the cancer appears. Some men with low-risk prostate cancer are placed on active surveillance, meaning the cancer is monitored closely with regular testing but not immediately treated. This approach avoids the side effects of surgery or radiation while keeping a close watch for any signs the cancer is becoming more dangerous. For more aggressive cancers, treatment typically involves surgery to remove the prostate, radiation therapy, or hormone-based treatments that slow the cancer’s growth.
The Other Common Cancers in Men
While prostate cancer leads the list, the other top cancers in men are worth understanding. Lung cancer remains the deadliest cancer in men despite falling incidence rates over recent decades, driven largely by declining smoking rates. Roughly 80% to 90% of lung cancers are attributed to cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke exposure.
Colorectal cancer, the third most common, has a median age at diagnosis of 66. Its incidence rate in men is about 43 per 100,000, notably higher than in women. One concerning trend is that colorectal cancer is increasingly being diagnosed in younger adults, which has led to screening recommendations being lowered to age 45 for average-risk individuals.
Melanoma and bladder cancer round out the top five. Melanoma is highly treatable when caught early but can be deadly once it spreads beyond the skin. Bladder cancer is about four times more common in men than women, with smoking being the leading preventable risk factor.