# Prostate cancer incidence, mortality, and survival in Switzerland

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-menges-prostate-cancer-switzerland-jama-netw-open-2026/  
OnCo record `paper-menges-prostate-cancer-switzerland-jama-netw-open-2026` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Forty years of Swiss registry data on prostate cancer: more early, low-risk cancers found by testing, a rise in advanced cancers after 2011, and ten-year survival nearly doubled.

## Summary

A population-based cohort study of every registered primary prostate cancer in Switzerland from 1980 to 2021, using data from the National Agency for Cancer Registration and the Federal Statistical Office, with the NKRS director as senior author. It estimated age-standardised incidence and mortality and relative survival up to ten years, by age, stage and Gleason score.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-11-03
- Journal: JAMA Network Open
- Year: 2026
- DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.8289
- Authors: Menges D, Wildisen L, Scherer T, et al.; Staehelin K
- Findings: 142,665 primary prostate cancers were registered between 1980 and 2021; 70.2 per cent were in men aged 60 to 79.; Incidence rose to 226.6 per 100,000 men by 2004, fell to 173.5 in 2011-2014, and rose again to 220.6 in 2021, mainly in localised, lower-grade cancers.; Incidence of distant and stage IV cancer increased after 2011, while Gleason 8 to 10 cancers stayed stable.; Mortality fell continuously from the early 1990s to 34.8 per 100,000 men in 2021; ten-year relative survival rose from 46.2 per cent in 1982-1991 to 88.5 per cent in 2012-2021, and 99.2 per cent for localised cancer.
- What it means: The authors read the pattern as more overdiagnosis of lower-risk cancer alongside a rise in advanced diagnoses, and see room to organise early detection better, the same conclusion the NKRS care-quality report reached.
- Caveats: Registry coverage of Switzerland was incomplete before 2020, so early national figures are estimates weighted up from the covered cantons.

## Sources

- JAMA Network Open 2026: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.8289
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42012828/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- fronts: [Early Detection & Screening](https://onco.cc/fronts/early-detection/)
- institutions: [National Agency for Cancer Registration (NKRS) / NICER](https://onco.cc/institutions/nkrs-nicer/), [Swiss Federal Statistical Office (BFS/OFS)](https://onco.cc/institutions/federal-statistical-office-ch/)
- people: [Katharina Staehelin](https://onco.cc/people/katharina-staehelin/)
- bottlenecks: [Overdiagnosis and false alarms](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-overdiagnosis/)

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