The likelihood of a man having benign prostate disease by the time he's 65 is almost two-thirds, and it continues to increase in the course of his lifetime. The likelihood of a man being diagnosed with prostate cancer sometime in his life is 1 in 6, or about 16 percent. The likelihood of those men having a difficult time with their prostate cancer if it's diagnosed late is minimal.
Usually men should start to be screened for prostate cancer at age 50 unless they have a strong family history of prostate cancer, in which case they ought to be screened earlier.
Early prostate symptoms to watch for are lower urinary tract symptoms, or difficulties with urination. These include a slow stream, having to wait for the stream to start, hesitancy, getting up at night frequently, an increase in urinary frequency and a feeling of not emptying the bladder completely.