ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancerspecific death in the USA and the UK.1 The increased awareness of this disease, in combination with serum testing for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), has led to an increase in the use of radical prostatectomy as a treatment for clinically organ-confined prostate cancer in the USA and elsewhere in the Western world.2
In England and Wales, the age-specific incidence peaked in 1994, with the subsequent rate decreasing towards the underlying trend in most age groups.3
Public awareness of the disease is clearly on the increase, partly because of media interest and growing general interest in men’s health issues.
