Datamonitor Healthcare: Over half a million prostate cancer incident cases to be diagnosed this year

New research from Datamonitor Healthcare during prostate cancer awareness month

Over half a million cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed worldwide in 2014, according to new research from global independent analyst firm Datamonitor Healthcare.

The firm estimates the number of prostate cancer incident cases in the five major EU markets this year to be 270,000, and in the US this number will be nearly 300,000. These numbers are forecast to increase by 27% and 20% respectively, reaching 340,000 and 360,000 by 2020.

The UK alone is set for nearly 53,000 newly diagnosed cases in 2014, which will grow to 66,000 by 2020.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in males. Although treatment is relatively successful in the early stages, it becomes more difficult to control with later diagnosis. As the cancer progresses it can spread to other parts of the body and become metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), which is resistant to medical or surgical treatments that lower testosterone.

Emad AlMuti, analyst at Datamonitor Healthcare said: “Prostate cancer is one of the ‘big four’ tumor types and is one of the most hormone-sensitive cancers of all. It is well controlled by surgical and pharmacological castration in its early stages, however, there is a need for new treatments for mCRPC.”

The leading drug in the mCRPC market is Johnson & Johnson’s Zytiga, which is forecast to achieve sales of $1.4bn in the US, Japan and five major EU markets in 2014.

Emad continued: “Zytiga’s success has fueled competition in the mCRPC market and Medivation/Astellas androgen receptor signaling inhibitor, Xtandi, is emerging as a strong contender.”