MOST COMMON TYPE OF CANCER AMONG MEN
Today, prostate cancer now tops the list as the most common cancer among men in Singapore, data from the Singapore Cancer Registry showed.
From 2018 to 2022, prostate, colorectal and lung cancers were the three most common cancers diagnosed in males, according to the registry’s data. They accounted for 17.4 per cent, 16.2 per cent and 13.4 per cent of cancers diagnosed in males respectively.
The data also showed that prostate cancer’s age-standardised incidence rate, which measures how common new cases of a disease are in a population, had increased from 4 to 38.2 cases per 100,000 men over a five-decade period.
Responding to queries from CNA, a Ministry of Health (MOH) spokesperson said the rise in incidence rate is likely to be partly due to increased screening, as some screen-detected prostate cancers may have remained silent throughout the lifetime of an individual in the absence of screening.
“Prostate cancer is also known to be more common in high-income countries,” said the spokesperson.
While prostate cancer rates rose in tandem with the number of screenings, the data also shows that the number of cases detected at an early stage fell more drastically in recent years – a sign that people are only testing for the silent disease when it becomes urgent.
The proportion of prostate cancer patients diagnosed at an early stage fell significantly from 63.5 per cent in the 2003 to 2007 period to 51.6 per cent in the 2013 to 2017 time span.
According to the registry’s data on stage distribution of prostate cancer from 2018 to 2022, 15 per cent of prostate cancer cases were discovered in stage one, 29.3 per cent in stage two, 25.5 per cent in stage three and 30.2 per cent in stage four.
These trends are concerning, experts said.
Despite large advances in cancer-related medical technology and the greater availability of prostate cancer screening today, fewer men are catching the disease early.
