Clinical characteristics of prostate cancer in Gunma prefecture.

Prostate cancer clinical data from patients registered at Gunma University Urologic Oncology Study Group were compared between pre-PSA and PSA eras, dividing them between those patients diagnosed at clinical practice and those diagnosed on the Gunma mass-screening programme. In the MS, the number of incidents of prostate cancer increased from 126 out of 16750 screened cases in the pre-PSA era (0. 75%) to 227 out of 19782 screened cases in the PSA era (1.15%). The average age was lower in the PSA era. As for clinical stage, stage B and C cases increased while stage D cases decreased. For the clinical practice cases at the Gunma University Urologic Oncology Study Group, the number of registered incidents of prostate cancer increased from 1164 in the pre-PSA era to 2098 in the PSA era. The average age was similar between the pre-PSA and PSA eras. The percentage of cases who were stage D declined from 46.1 during the pre-PSA era to 37.7 in the PSA era. In the PSA era, earlier and more cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed both in clinical practice and in the mass screening program in Gunma Prefecture.