[Survival in prostatic cancer, treated conservatively]

To analyse the survival rate among prostate cancer patients with conservative treatment. To compare survival between individuals with localised and invasive tumours, as well as between subjects below and above 70 years old at the time of diagnosis.

This study includes 80 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1987 and 1988 at the Urology Service of the Central Hospital of Asturias (Spain). The cases were taken and followed retrospectively for 10 years. Kaplan Meter curves and Cox regression analyses were used for studying patients globally. Patients were categorised by tumour stage as well as by their age at the time of initial diagnosis.

10 patients remained living 5 years after diagnosis, corresponding to a 17% survival rate. However, 10 years after diagnosis, only 1 subject remained alive. Mean survival expressed in days was 677.28% of the cases died after the first year of diagnosis. Significant differences in survival rates were not found with regard to the age of patients ar the time of the diagnosis. However, survival is significantly higher among patients with localised tumours as opposed to invasive ones (p = 0.025; RR = 2.3).

The survival rates is low in this study. The majority of tumours were at advanced stages when diagnosed and were mostly found in very old patients. Today, the use of PSA allows doctors to diagnose prostate cancer at earlier stages and in younger patients. This has lead to an increase in the frequency of radical prostatectomy. Future research should investigate whether this increase in radical prostatectomy has significantly changed the mortality rate of patients with prostate cancer.