Objective To study the application of 3.0T dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging (MR DCE-MRI) in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Methods The clinical data of 80 patients with biopsy pathologically confirmed prostate diseases who were admitted in our hospital between May 2013 and May 2015 were analyzed retrospectively. Among them, there were 50 cases with prostate cancer and 30 cases with benign prostatic hyperplasia. All patients underwent DCE-MRI and 3.0T MR diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) examination. DCE-MRI was used to diagnose prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia. The mean time to peak (Tmax), maximum slope of increase (MSI) and signal enhancement ratio (SER) were analyzed. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were compared between DCE-MRI and DWI in the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Results Among the 50 cases with prostate cancer, there were 32 cases with prostate cancer and 18 cases with central cancer. Tmax, MSI and SER of prostate cancer were (69068.34±18005) ms, (216.02±43.24), (122.05±17.34) respectively while of benign prostate hyperplasia were (83012.56±24352.19) ms, (187.26±29.35) and (108.37±11.98) respectively. Tmax of prostate cancer was shorter than that of benign prostate hyperplasia while MSI and SER were than those of benign prostate hyperplasia (P<0.05). The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of DCE-MRI in the diagnosis of prostate cancer were 62.00%, 90.00% and 82.00% respectively while of T2W1 were 71.00%, 84.00% and 76.00% respectively (P>0.05). Conclusion Both of DCE-MRI and DWI can be used for diagnosis of prostate cancer, with specific manifestations.