In 2000, cancer was responsible for 12 per cent of the 56 million deaths worldwide, from all causes. In many countries, more than 25% of deaths are attributable to cancer. In the same year, 5.3 million men and 4.7 million women developed a malignant tumour and altogether 6.2 million died from the disease. Cancer has also emerged as a major public health problem in developing countries, almost equalling what has been seen in industrialised nations (World Health Organisation, WHO). According to the World Cancer Report (WHO, 2003), cancer incidence rates could increase by 50% by the year 2020.

In Europe and the US there are close to 20 million people living with cancer today, a figure that is increasing.

According to Cancer Statistics 2006 (American Cancer Society), there were expected to be more cases of prostate cancer in men in the US in 2006 (33% of all cancers in men) than for any other cancers. The numbers of patients suffering from cancers of the lung/bronchus and colon/rectum in the US in 2006 were forecast to be 13% and 10% of all cancers in men, respectively. Deaths from prostate cancers were expected to account for 9% of all male deaths from cancer in the US in 2006, after cancers of the lung/bronchus (31%) and colon/rectum (10%). A similar pattern for prostate cancer is being seen in other developed countries and global deaths from prostate cancer in 2006 are likely to have exceeded 300,000. In 2006, more than 1.1 million men globally were expected to be diagnosed with the disease. One in six (16.7%) of all men will develop prostate cancer during their lifetimes.

The prognosis for patients diagnosed with prostate cancer critically depends on its developmental stage at the time of diagnosis. As a result of national screening programmes, 58% of all prostate cancers diagnosed in the USA in 1997 were discovered at an early stage (i.e. localised within the prostatic capsule). The 5-year relative survival rate for patients diagnosed with prostate cancer at this stage is almost 100%. In Europe, where there is no standardised early screening, 25–30% of prostate cancers are diagnosed at the advanced stage and overall 5-year survival rates are between 50% and 60%. Survival rates for patients diagnosed with a prostate cancer that has breached the prostatic capsule are poor and patients with metastatic disease have the lowest predicted survival rates of all. On average, 46% of patients with metastatic disease die 22 months after diagnosis, and approximately 70% of all patients diagnosed with metastatic disease die within 5 years.

Whilst these figures clearly emphasise the need for early screening, they also confirm that current treatments are inadequate and show significant side-effects. This important unmet need has driven Pro-Cure’s own research programme, which the Company believes will produce the next generation of therapies for the treatment of prostate cancer, whilst also avoiding many debilitating adverse side-effects which are associated with current therapies.

Overall annual costs associated with cancer currently amount to $107 billion in the United States alone, suggesting global costs of $250 billion and growing. From this figure, global costs associated with prostate cancer are estimated at $15-20 billion. In 2004, prostate drug sales were $2.7 billion, a figure which is expected to grow to c. $9 billion by 2013.