EDISCIENCES

The prostate carcinoma (PC) is the most frequent cancer type among Italian men, with 350.00 new yearly diagnoses – i.e., 18% of the 192.000 cancers recorded in men. PC particularly affects elderly men: one out of five cancers in men aged 70 years or older is a PC. After an incidence peal recorded in 2000-2005, a steady decline of PC incidence rates has been documented in Italy an observation largely attributable to the decreased use of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) use for early diagnosis of PC. However, the decline in incidence rates has been counterbalanced by the decline in mortality rates and by the very high survival rates (94% of Italian men with PC is alive after 5 years from diagnosis). As a consequence, there are more than 300.000 living in Italy with a previous diagnosis of PC making PC one the more severe oncological challenge with regard to both clinical perspectives and management.