Prostate cancer usually grows slowly. If caught early, it is highly treatable. It’s also common. Roughly 3.4 million people in the U.S. are living with prostate cancer.

The National Cancer Institute recognizes the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute as one of the best places in the nation to receive cancer care. You’ll find: 

• Top prostate cancer experts who work together to give you the best care
• One of the nation’s most experienced teams in robotic surgery for prostate cancer
• Treatments you can’t find anywhere else in the region
• Scientists who have led the way in developing new prostate cancer therapies
• Nurses and other cancer experts to guide you through treatment
• Support groups for prostate cancer patients and families
• Clinical trials and new therapies at all stages of prostate cancer

Quick links

• Prostate cancer screening
• Prostate cancer signs and symptoms
• Prostate cancer stages
• Prostate cancer diagnosis
• Prostate cancer treatment
• Prostate cancer team

What makes us different

Experience: Our team does hundreds of prostate cancer surgeries a year.

Expertise: Our specialists treat all types of prostate cancer, including rare, advanced and aggressive types. We have a prostate cancer genetics clinic with genetic counselors, a medical oncologist and a urologist.

Working together: We schedule visits so patients can see many specialists in one day. For challenging cases, our team meets every other week to discuss the best care plan.

Innovation: Our scientists lead clinical trials to test and refine prostate cancer treatments. Our team has helped get FDA approval for new treatments.

Technology: We use the latest technology to target cancer and protect healthy tissue.

Prostate cancer develops in the prostate, a gland that’s part of the male reproductive system. The prostate is about the size of a walnut. It sits in front of the rectum, under the bladder and above the penis.

The most common type of prostate cancer is called adenocarcinoma. It makes up almost all prostate cancer cases. Cancer starts in the cells that make prostate fluid.

According to the National Cancer Institute, about 300,000 cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed a year in the U.S. That’s about 15 percent of new cancer cases a year nationally.

Anyone with a prostate is at some risk for prostate cancer.  Most patients are over 40 when diagnosed.

Learn more about prostate cancer risk factors.

Prostate cancer survival rates

The five-year relative survival rate for prostate cancer is 99% for cancer that is only in the prostate or has spread only to nearby body parts, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Researchers gather national data on patients who live at least five years after diagnosis  to calculate the relative survival rate. The rate is based on averages, though, and can’t predict the outcome for you.

The survival rate for cancer that has spread to distant body parts is less encouraging. At the Knight, we will work with you to give you as much time as we can.

Clinical trials and research

Clinical trials are research studies that test ways to prevent, detect, diagnose and treat conditions in humans. Sometimes trials test new drugs, and sometimes they test existing drugs in new combinations. 

The Knight is a leader in clinical trials, offering early access to promising new treatments. We have research partners throughout the world, connecting you to the latest advances.

At the Knight:

• We tested a hormone therapy called enzalutamide. It is now standard care for some advanced prostate cancers.
• We played a key role in studying a treatment called Pluvicto. It can help when prostate cancer has spread and doesn’t respond to hormone therapy and chemotherapy.
• We work to develop precise, custom ways to prevent and treat advanced prostate cancer. We do this by looking at prostate cancer at the molecular level.
• We are studying evidence that gut bacteria can improve immune therapy for prostate cancer.

Learn more

• Prostate Cancer, American Cancer Society
• Prostate Cancer: Patient Version, National Cancer Institute
• Prostate Cancer, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention