Data from national cancer registries shows that incidence of certain cancers are on rise in India. The cancers which are showing significant increase in incidence rates include prostate, mouth and kidney among male population, corpus uteri, breast and thyroid among female population and lung cancer in both male and female populations. In the present review article we have focused on epidemiology of prostate cancer in Indian subcontinent in terms of incidence, survival, and mortality etc. The article presents the incidence rates, mortality and trends over time for prostate cancer as the data collected from national population based cancer registries. Prostate is the second leading site of cancer among males in large Indian cities like Delhi, Kolkatta, Pune and Thiruvananthapuram, third leading site of cancer in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai and it is among the top ten leading sites of cancers in the rest of the population based cancer registries (PBCRs) of India. The PBCRs at Bangalore (Annual Percentage Change: 3.4%), Chennai (4.2%), Delhi (3.3%), Mumbai (0.9%) and Kamrup Urban District (11.6%) recorded a statistically significant increasing trend in incidence rates over time.
Keywords: Delhi; Epidemiology; India; PBCR; Prostate cancer.