Prostate cancer in 2025: what patients need to know

By 2025, the way prostate cancer is managed is changing rapidly: while many men never notice their tumour, others face aggressive forms that spread silently through the body. At the same time, hospitals and researchers are developing new approaches, including more accurate screening, less invasive treatments and personalised therapy plans. This has important implications for patients.

Prostate cancer: common, deceptively silent and highly variable

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. It generally occurs after the age of 50 and becomes more frequent with advancing age. Many tumours grow slowly, remain small and never cause symptoms. Others become aggressive, break through the prostate capsule and spread to lymph nodes and bones.

The disease starts in the prostate, a gland roughly the size of a walnut located below the bladder. In more than 90 per cent of cases, it is an adenocarcinoma arising from glandular cells. Early-stage disease rarely produces symptoms. Possible signs include:

• needing to pass urine frequently, particularly at night,