What Joe Torre's Story Can Help Us Understand About Prostate Cancer

Spring training, 1999

The Society for American Baseball Research records the moment in one line. In 1999, during spring training, Joe Torre was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The disease was caught in time, and he made a complete recovery.

Don Zimmer managed the Yankees in his place. Torre came back after the team had played 36 regular season games. That season ended in a World Series title.

That is what is on the record. Nothing here describes his treatment choices or his health today, because he has not made those public and we will not guess.

A gland most men could not point to

The prostate is a small gland below the bladder, wrapped around the tube that carries urine out of the body. It makes part of the fluid in semen. It is also the most common site of cancer in men in the United States.

About 333,830 new prostate cancer diagnoses and about 36,320 deaths are forecast for 2026 — an American Cancer Society projection that SEER, NCI's cancer surveillance program, publishes. NCI reports the median age at diagnosis is 68.

Put those two numbers together and you get the central fact about this disease. It is extremely common, and most men who have it do not die of it.

Why "cancer" here does not mean what it usually means

NCI's clinical summary is blunt about the range. The rate of tumor growth varies from very slow to moderately rapid. Some men live for years even after the cancer has reached distant sites such as bone.

The tool used to sort that range is the Gleason score. A pathologist looks at biopsy tissue and grades the two most common patterns, from 1 (well organized) to 5 (very disorganized). Adding them gives a score from 2 to 10, usually written out as its parts — 3 + 4 = 7 is not the same as 4 + 3 = 7, because the first number is the dominant pattern.

NCI also flags a catch that matters when reading old figures. Over time, pathologists have drifted toward assigning higher Gleason scores to the same slides, a pattern called grade inflation. When a set of 1990s biopsies was re-read a decade later, the scores came out an average of 0.85 points higher.

What screening buys, and what it costs

There is no standard or routine screening test for prostate cancer. That is NCI's own wording, and it surprises people.

The PSA test measures prostate-specific antigen, a substance made mostly by the prostate, in the blood. A raised level can mean cancer. It can equally mean an infection, inflammation, or benign prostatic hyperplasia — an enlarged but non-cancerous prostate.

NCI names the real problem, and it is not false alarms. It is overdiagnosis: some prostate cancers would never have caused symptoms or shortened a life, but once a screening test finds them, they tend to get treated. NCI states it is not known whether treating those cancers helps a man live longer.

Treatment is not free of cost either. NCI lists erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence as the most common long-term side effects of radical prostatectomy and radiation therapy.

This is why the sensible answer to "should I get a PSA test?" is a conversation rather than a yes or no. Our guide to cancer screening explains the general trade-off, and the prostate cancer page covers the specifics.

Symptoms, and why they are not the alarm system

Most prostate cancers in the United States are found by testing, not by symptoms. NCI notes that symptoms at diagnosis are infrequent.

When local growth does cause symptoms, they are urinary: a weaker stream, urgency, hesitancy before the flow starts, getting up at night, and a sense the bladder has not emptied. NCI adds the crucial caveat — these are nonspecific, and far more often point to benign enlargement than to cancer.

Worth raising with a doctor without waiting:

• Any of those urinary changes lasting more than a few weeks, at any age over 45.
• Blood in the urine or semen.
• New, persistent pain in the lower back, hips, or ribs that does not track with activity.
• A father or brother diagnosed with prostate cancer, especially before 65 — a reason to start the screening conversation earlier.
• Being a non-Hispanic Black man. SEER records 200.1 new cases per 100,000 men per year in that group, against 123.2 across all groups. That is also a reason to raise screening earlier.

What this does not mean

• One man's outcome forecasts nothing. Torre's cancer was found while treatable. That is not information about anyone else's.
• "Caught in time" is a description after the fact, not a category. Stage and grade are what a team acts on.
• SEER's headline five-year relative survival of 98.2 percent, measured in men diagnosed from 2016 through 2022, is dominated by the 69 percent of cases found while still confined to the prostate. For cancer that has reached distant sites, the figure is 40.1 percent. Both are averages across large groups diagnosed years ago, and neither describes an individual.
• A normal PSA does not rule out prostate cancer, and a raised PSA is not a diagnosis. Only a biopsy settles it.
• Skipping screening is a defensible choice made knowingly. It is a poor choice made by default.

Sources

• Society for American Baseball Research: Joe Torre biography
• NCI PDQ: Prostate Cancer Treatment (Health Professional Version)
• NCI PDQ: Prostate Cancer Screening (Patient Version)
• NCI SEER Cancer Stat Facts: Prostate Cancer
• American Cancer Society: Cancer Facts & Figures

How this article was prepared

An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.

Cancer Explained is published by the National Cancer Information Foundation. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.

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