Primary treatment choices for men with clinically localized prostate carcinoma detected by screening

Increasingly, prostate carcinoma is diagnosed through screening. However, little is known regarding factors that influence a patient's decision concerning the treatment choices presented to him.

Subjects were prostate carcinoma patients detected through the Washington University PSA Prostate Cancer Screening Program between September 1989 and June 1998. The sources of data were the prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening database and follow-up questionnaire.

Among 1809 study subjects, 79.2% chose radical prostatectomy (RP), 12.4% chose radiation therapy, and 8.4% chose watchful waiting (WW) as their decision regarding primary treatment. In bivariate analyses, education, income, age, indication for prostate biopsy, comorbidity score, serum PSA level, clinical stage, and pretreatment urinary and sexual function were associated significantly with treatment choice, but race, marital status, and Gleason grade were not. In a multivariate analysis, age, race, clinical stage, PSA level, and pretreatment urinary and sexual function were found to be associated significantly with treatment choice. For every 5-year decrease in age, the odds for choosing RP versus WW increased by 276%; for every 1-ng increase in PSA, the odds for choosing RP versus WW increased by 12%. Non-African-American patients were greater than four times more likely to select RP versus WW. Patients with T2 tumors and those with normal pretreatment urinary function were three times more likely and twice more likely to choose RP versus WW, respectively.

In the current study, RP was the most widely used treatment in patients with screen-detected prostate carcinoma. Age, race, PSA level, clinical stage, and pretreatment urinary and sexual function were significant factors influencing treatment selection.