Prostate cancer is a hormone-dependent disease that is dependent on endogenous androgens to advance and proliferate. More than 90 percent of all prostate cancers are discovered in the local and regional stage. The 5-year survival for patients whose prostate cancer is diagnosed at this early stage approaches 100 percent.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in Europe and North America. In the USA, prostate cancer continues to have the highest incidence rate and the third highest mortality rate of any cancer for men. According to The American Cancer Society, there were more than 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer in 2006 and nearly 30,000 men died of this disease the same year in the USA only. Globally, prostate cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the number of new cases (incidence), and the third most common among men. Approximately 520,000 new cases of prostate cancer were registered in 2004. In Europe, an estimated 2.6 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year. Prostate cancer constitutes about 11 percent of all male cancers in Europe.