King's College London, Medical School, Division of Cancer Studies, Section of Cancer Epidemiology, SE1 9RT London, UK.
Uppsala University, Department of Surgical Sciences, Uppsala University Hospital, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden; Regional Oncology Centre, Uppsala/Örebro Region, University Hospital, 751 85 Uppsala, Sweden.
The objective of the study was to compare patterns of survival 2001-2004 in prostate cancer patients from England, Norway and Sweden in relation to age and period of follow-up.
Excess mortality in men with prostate cancer was estimated using nation-wide cancer register data using a period approach for relative survival. 179,112 men in England, 23,192 in Norway and 59,697 in Sweden were included.
In all age groups, England had the lowest survival, particularly so among men aged 80+. Overall age-standardised five-year survival was 76.4%, 80.3% and 83.0% for England, Norway and Sweden, respectively. The majority of the excess deaths in England were confined to the first year of follow-up.
The results indicate that a small but important group of older patients present at a late stage and succumb early to their cancers, possibly in combination with severe comorbidity, and this situation is more common in England than in Norway or Sweden.
Written by:
Holmberg L, Robinson D, Sandin F, Bray F, Linklater KM, Klint A, Lambert PC, Adolfsson J, Hamdy FC, Catto J, Møller H. Are you the author?
Reference: Cancer Epidemiol. 2011 Sep 8. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2011.08.001
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21907655
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