Population based survival from prostate cancer in Mumbai (Bombay), India

Survival from cancer reflects the aggressiveness of the disease, the effectiveness of treatment and host factors such as age. Population based survival reflects the effectiveness of the overall cancer control strategy in the region. Here we report the survival experience of 740 prostate cancer patients registered by the Mumbai (Bombay) Cancer Registry during 1987-1991. There have been very few reports on survival from cancer in India, mainly because of poor patient follow up and inadequate system of registration of death. This has been largely overcome in this study by means of matching with death certificate of Municipal Corporation, telephone and postal enquiries and active follow up through visits of homes of patients. Scrutiny of medical record was also carried out whenever it was possible. Thus information on survival status as on January 1, 1997 was available for 602 patients (82%). The observed survival was 35.1% and the corresponding relative survival was 41.6%. The clinical extent of disease, treatment given and age of the patient were independent predictors of survival. The observed survival was 49.2% for localised disease, 23.5% for direct extention and regional node involvement and 12.7% for distant metastatis patients.