Prostate cancer is Australia's most expensive disease to treat with costs ballooning to $1.35 billion a year.

Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) published this month shows prostate cancer accounts for 20 per cent of cancer-related expenditure on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, at a cost of nearly $600 million per year.

Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia CEO Anne Savage said the data was an urgent wake-up call, with prostate cancer the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australian men.

"Total health system expenditure on prostate cancer was $1.35b in 2019-2020, accounting for the highest costs of any single disease condition and of all cancer types (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers)," she said.

The 13 per cent increase from the previous year shows "the increasing burden of prostate cancer on Australian men, their families, our community, and the economy".

Release of the data coincides with publication of the latest findings from Australia's Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry (PCOR) last month.

The registry found the number of Australian men diagnosed with high-risk and potentially deadly prostate cancers increased from 36 per cent in 2018 to 38 per cent in 2019.

High rates of men with prostate cancer have serious health challenges associated with loss of sexual function and incontinence, due to treatment.

Around 88 per cent of prostate cancer deaths occurred in men over 70 in 2020.

The number of deaths from prostate cancer (all ages) reached its highest recorded level in 2020, with 3568 deaths overall.

Nearly 25,000 men are diagnosed with the disease every year but Ms Savage says an earlier diagnosis and more investment in prostate cancer research can be life changing and cheaper in the long run, with a less strained health system.