UK prostate cancer diagnosis risk on the rise

The lifetime risk of a prostate cancer diagnosis is set to increase to one in seven for boys born in the UK in three years' time, according to a new Cancer Research UK study.

Data from the research organisation has suggested that just over 14 percent of males born in 2015 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point, compared to only five percent of those born in 1990.

This threefold increase over a 25-year span is largely due to increased usage of the  Prostate Specific Antigen Test, which has made it easier to detect the disease, though it is not able to distinguish between the less dangerous and more aggressive forms of the condition.

However, it is also due to the fact that more men are living to an older age, when the disease is most likely to develop. 

Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive, said: "We need to build on the great progress already made and develop more targeted treatments for those men whose disease is life-threatening."

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with more than 34,000 cases diagnosed every year.