Ten-year Mortality in Men With Nonmetastatic Prostate Cancer in Norway

To provide population-based data on 10-year prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM), overall mortality (OM), treatment, and prognostic factors in patients with nonmetastatic prostate cancer (PCa).

Based on data from the Norwegian Prostate Cancer Registry, we calculated 10-year PCSM and OM in 3449 patients diagnosed with nonmetastatic PCa in 2004-2005 who underwent radical prostatectomy (n = 913), radiotherapy (n = 1334), or no local treatment (n = 1202). Patients were stratified according to risk group, Gleason grade group (GGG), and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status. Aalen-Johansen and Kaplan-Meier estimates and proportional hazards regressions were used.

The 10-year PCSM rate was 8.5% (radical prostatectomy: 1.5, radiotherapy: 6.2%, no local treatment: 16.3%) and the OM rate was 25.5%. In the low-risk group, the risk of dying from other causes was 8-fold increased compared with death from PCa, the comparable factor being approximately 2 among high-risk patients. Patients with high-risk factors seemed to benefit the most from local treatment. Within each risk group, the 5 GGGs improved the prediction of PCSM. Having an ECOG performance status of ≥1 doubled the risk of PCSM compared with patients with an ECOG performance status of 0.

For all patients, the 10-year OM was about 3 times higher than PCSM, the greatest and lowest discrepancies emerging among patients with low- and high-risk tumors, respectively. The results support increased use of local treatment in high-risk patients. GGGs should be implemented in clinical practice. The role of ECOG performance status as prognostic factor has to be validated in future studies.