Changes in prognostic and therapeutic parameters in prostate cancer from an epidemiological view over 20 years

The study objective was to examine changes in prognosis and treatment of prostate cancer patients over 20 years and to evaluate their impact on survival.

38,861 prostate cancer patients diagnosed between 1990 and 2010 and living in the catchment area of the Munich Cancer Registry were analysed.

Pre-therapeutic prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing increased substantially in the early 1990s. A shift from capsule-exceeding tumours to capsule-limited tumours also took place especially in the 1990s. The proportion of radical prostatectomy increased continuously over the last 20 years from 20% to almost 50% whereas hormone therapy decreased from 55% to 18%. Radiation therapy and transurethral resection of the prostate increased slightly from about 5% to 10%. The 5- and 10-year relative survival rates increased from 92% to 97% and from 86% to 92%, respectively.

2 reasons may account for the rise in survival rates over 20 years: First, the establishment of widely used PSA testing resulted in a shift towards more favourable T categories due to the detection of many additional small tumours as well as the noticeable change in initial treatment strategy towards more radical prostatectomies. The second factor that likely increased survival was improvements in the therapies themselves.