Survival of patients with prostate cancer in Yazd, Iran

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. Several factors such as availability of screening tests, and dietary, other lifestyle, environmental and genetic influences contribute to worldwide disparities in prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates. Our aims were to investigate patient characteristics at the time of diagnosis, common treatment strategies employed and survival in an Iranian male population with prostate cancer.

Archives of Pathology Departments of five referral centers affiliated with the School of Medicine of Shahid Sadoughi University in Yazd province were reviewed. Paraffin-embedded blocks were reviewed by two independent pathologists to confirm the diagnosis. The latest modification of the Gleason Scoring System was adopted to determine pathological grading. Following pathological evaluation, patients were contacted via telephone to acquire information regarding their current status.

Pathology blocks were available for 113 patients. However, upon phone contacts, we were unable to determine the survival status in 23 patients (response rate=83%). Therefore, 90 patients were enrolled in the final analysis. The median follow-up time was 6.0 years (ranging from 0.3 to 8.8 years). There were 30 death attributed to prostate cancer in the study group. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patient age at the time of diagnosis was a significant predictor of survival. Another significant predictor of poorer survival was higher tumor grade.

Our observations indicate that age and pathological grade can negatively affect survival of individuals with prostate cancer in Iran.