According to the National Cancer Institute, about 16 percent of men will someday develop prostate cancer (about one out of every six males). It is estimated that over 217,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States in 2010 which meant that one out of every four cancer diagnoses in American men were for prostate cancer.
Not surprisingly, prostate cancer deaths rank among the highest of all cancers in men. In 2010, prostate cancer was the second leading cause of all cancer-related deaths in men as over 32,000 lost their lives to the disease -- approximately 11 percent of all male deaths from cancer.
Typically, as men age, the likelihood of developing prostate cancer increases until age 70. In fact, men have around an 8 percent chance of developing prostate cancer between the ages of 50 and 70. About 65 percent of all prostate cancer deaths are men ages 55 to 74.