Experts warned the 'lost' referrals could lead to thousands of delayed diagnoses and avoidable deaths.
NHS England data shows the number of patients urgently referred for the cancer fell by 28 per cent between April 2020 and January of this year - about 52,000 fewer.
The charity Prostate Cancer UK estimates at least 8,600 fewer men started treatment for prostate cancer in that time, down around a third on 2019.
It said the drop in referrals is largely attributed to fewer men seeing their GP during this time. Urgent cancer referrals are made when family doctors strongly suspect a patient may have the disease.
For example, separate NHS Digital figures show there have been 35million GP appointments over the course of the pandemic.