Prostate cancer most common among U.S. men

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prostate cancer, recently diagnosed in both Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and television evangelist Pat Robertson, is the single most common form of cancer in U.S. men.

It will affect an estimated 220,900 men this year, according to the American Cancer Society, and will kill nearly 29,000.

Lung cancer is much more deadly. It will affect 171,000 Americans in 2003, according to the ACS, and will kill 157,000, including 88,000 men. Breast cancer will affect an estimated 212,000 U.S. women and will kill 40,000.

An American man has a 16 percent chance of developing prostate cancer in his lifetime, but the disease has a relatively low mortality rate because it is a slow-growing cancer, easily cured if caught early.

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