Prostate Cancer Diagnosis


Email Raji.Kooner@svha.org.au or call 02 8382 6980 for a confidential appointment.

Prostate cancer is a very common condition; it was the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia in 2018.1

In 2022, it is estimated that a male has a 1 in 6 (or 17%) risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer by the age of 85.1

The incidence rate for prostate cancer is expected to increase with age, highest for those aged 75–79 years.1

In 2018, there were 21,853 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in Australia1. In 2020, there were 3,568 deaths from prostate cancer in Australia.1

Just about everyone knows someone with prostate cancer. It maybe a father, a brother, an uncle or a very good friend. It hence represents a very large burden of disease with enormous social impact to our society.

Prostate cancer is something that I’m passionate about. I've dedicated much of my professional life to the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is a very heterogeneous disease which really means, it means different things to different people. Sometimes it can be very active or very aggressive. Sometimes prostate cancer can be very slow growing and not cause a problem in that patient's lifetime. So it's really important for patients to be assessed completely on a case by case basis.

Usually in my practice I spend a long time with patients: discuss all the treatment options, the pros and cons of each treatment, the potential side effects of each treatment, and what those side effects mean to that patient. Then, usually over a number of consultations, we will decide together what is best for that particular patient.

Prostate cancer is something that I'm really passionate about, and fortunately we've got excellent treatments that are now available for it, and I think it's a really important issue in our community.

References:

1. Cancer Australia - https://www.canceraustralia.gov.au/cancer-types/prostate-cancer/statistics