Changes in Characteristics of Men with Lethal Prostate Cancer During the Past 25 Years: Description of Population-based Deaths.

Background: Attempts to reduce prostate cancer (PC) mortality require an understanding of temporal changes in the characteristics of men with lethal PC. Objective: To describe the diagnostic characteristics of and time trends for a nationwide population-based cohort of Swedish men who died from PC between 1992 and 2016. Design setting and participants: Men with PC as the underlying cause of death from 1992 to 2016 according to the Swedish Cause of Death Register were included in the study. Characteristics at diagnosis were collected via links to other nationwide registries using personal identity numbers. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis: Data on disease duration, age at death, and risk category were analyzed. Missing data for risk categories for men with an early date of PC diagnosis were imputed according to the method of chained equations. Results and limitations: Between 1992 and 2016, age-standardized PC mortality decreased by 25%. Median PC disease duration increased from 3.3 yr (interquartile range [IQR] 1.6-6.3) to 5.9 yr (IQR 2.5-10.3) and the median age at death from PC increased from 78.9 yr (IQR 73.3-84.2) to 82.2 yr (IQR 75.2-87.5). The proportion of men with localized disease at diagnosis who died from PC increased from 34% to 48%, while the rate of distant metastases at diagnosis decreased from 56% to 42%. The rate of distant metastases at diagnosis was highest among the youngest men. Treatment trajectories could not be described owing to the large proportion of missing data before the start of registration in the National Prostate Cancer Registry. Conclusion: Age-standardized PC mortality has decreased substantially since 1992. However, there is still a high proportion of men who die from PC who had localized disease at diagnosis, which indicates that more attention is needed to identify the underlying causes to prevent disease progression. Since the proportion of men with distant metastases at diagnosis remains high, early detection of lethal tumors is essential to further reduce PC mortality. Patient summary: We investigated the characteristics of men who died from prostate cancer in Sweden between 1992 and 2016. We found that men with lethal prostate cancer live longer and are older when they die today in comparison to men who died at the beginning of the study period. However, the proportion of men with distant metastases at diagnosis remains high, which is why early detection of lethal tumors is essential to reduce mortality.

Adherence to guidelines for androgen deprivation therapy after radical prostatectomy: Swedish population-based study.

Background: Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a non-curative but essential treatment of prostate cancer with severe side effects. Therefore, both over- and underuse should be avoided. We investigated adherence to guidelines for ADT following radical prostatectomy through Swedish population-based data.Material and methods: We used the database Uppsala/Örebro PSA cohort (UPSAC) to study men with localised or locally advanced prostate cancer at diagnosis (clinical stage T1-T3, N0-NX, M0-MX, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) <50 ng/ml) who underwent radical prostatectomy 1997-2012. 114 men were treated with ADT and selected as cases; 1140 men with no ADT at the index date were selected as controls within 4-year strata of year of radical prostatectomy. All men with a biochemical recurrence and a PSA doubling time <12 months and/or a Gleason score of 8-10 were considered to have an indication for ADT according to the European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines.Results: No indication for ADT was found in 37% of the cases. Among these, 88% had clinical stage T1-2 at diagnosis, 57% had a biopsy Gleason score 2-6, 98% had an expected remaining lifetime over 10 years, 12% received castration, and 88% received antiandrogen monotherapy. 2% of controls were found to have an indication for ADT, and 96% of these had an expected remaining lifetime over 10 years.Conclusion: Our results indicate that overtreatment with ADT after radical prostatectomy is common, whereas undertreatment is unusual. Interventions to improve adherence to guidelines are needed to avoid unnecessary side-effects and long treatment durations with ADT.

The use of palliative medications before death from prostate cancer: Swedish population-based study with a comparative overview of European data.

BACKGROUND: Symptoms of terminal cancer have previously been reported as undertreated. The aim of this study was to assess the use of palliative medications before death from prostate cancer. METHODS: This Swedish register study included men who died from 2009 to 2012 with prostate cancer as the underlying cause of death. We assessed the proportion who collected a prescription of androgen deprivation therapy, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, paracetamol, opioids, glucocorticoids, antidepressants, anxiolytics and sedative-hypnotics and the differences in treatment related to age, time since diagnosis, educational level, close relatives and comorbidities. Data were collected from 3 years before death from prostate cancer. RESULTS: We included 8326 men. The proportion who received opioids increased from 30% to 72% during the last year of life, and 67% received a strong opioid at the time of death. Antidepressants increased from 13% to 22%, anxiolytics from 9% to 27% and sedative-hypnotics from 21% to 33%. Men without close relatives and older men had lower probability to receive opioids (odds ratio [OR]: 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.47-0.66 for >85 years versus <70 years) and (OR 0.78, 95% CI: 0.66-0.92 for unmarried without children versus married with children). CONCLUSION: Our results represent robust epidemiological data from Sweden for comparison of palliative care quality between countries. The findings indicate that men without close relatives and older men are disadvantaged with respect to the treatment of cancer pain and need closer attention from health care providers and highlight the importance to identify psychological distress in terminal prostate cancer.

Patterns of androgen deprivation therapies among men diagnosed with localised prostate cancer: a population-based study.

AIM: Many men diagnosed with localised prostate cancer will eventually be treated with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). ADT is associated with adverse effects and its timing is controversial. Data on patterns of use are scarce. We describe patterns of ADT use, defined as castration (medical and surgical) or antiandrogen monotherapy initiated after primary treatment, in a population-based cohort. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Data were extracted from the population-based Prostate Cancer data Base Sweden (PCBaSe). Totally 45,147 men diagnosed between 1997 and 2009 with clinical stage T1-2, N0-NX, M0-MX and prostate specific antigen (PSA)<50ng/ml without primary ADT were included. Outcomes in the period 2006 through 2010 were analysed using a period analysis approach. RESULTS: The cumulative incidence of castration at 10years after diagnosis was 11.6% (95% confidence interval (CI), 11.0-12.2%). The corresponding proportion of antiandrogen monotherapy was 10.8% (95% CI, 10.2-11.4%). Castration was the dominant therapy among men on deferred treatment. The probability of receiving castration rather than antiandrogen monotherapy increased with age. Estimated median durations of castration ranged from 4years in the deferred treatment high-risk group to 17years in the prostatectomy low-risk group. The main limitation was the lack of information on progression to metastatic disease and PSA at the time for initiation of ADT. CONCLUSION: When initiated early after curative treatment, the duration of castration can be decades. The findings indicate that more accurate tools are necessary to guide which men should be selected for ADT as secondary treatment.