Prostate cancer mortality in northern Sweden, with special reference to tumor grade and patient age

This study is designed to estimate the prostate cancer-specific mortality according to patient age and tumor grade in an unselected population of patients with prostate cancer who mostly received deferred or direct hormonal treatment as initial treatment.

The study population was composed of 6514 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer during 1971 to 1987 in northern Sweden. For those who died during follow-up, the cause of death was determined from the comprehensive Swedish registry data (population registries and causes of death registry).

About 85% of these patients died during the 7 to 23 years of follow-up, and the prostate cancer-specific mortality was estimated to be 55%. Age at diagnosis was found to be a strong predictor of prostate cancer death. Patients diagnosed before the age of 60 had an 80% risk of dying of prostate cancer, whereas those over 80 years of age at diagnosis had less than a 50% risk of prostate cancer-related death.

The prostate cancer mortality is high but decreases with older age at diagnosis. We found, using data from the causes of death registry, that the relative survival and the cause-specific survival of these patients were compatible with each other.