Clinical course of early onset prostate cancer with special reference to family history as a prognostic factor

The aim of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of early onset prostate cancer, with special reference to family history as a possible prognostic factor.

We identified all cases of prostate cancer diagnosed before the age of 51 in the Southern health care region in Sweden between 1958 and 1994. Clinical data were collected retrospectively from medical records. Data about family history of prostate cancer were also collected from the parish authorities and the Regional Cancer Registry.

In all, 89 cases were included. The median time of follow-up was 17 years. During the time of follow-up, 65 patients died, 57 of whom died from prostate cancer. At diagnosis, 34% of the patients had localized, 22% had locally advanced, and 40% had metastatic tumours. The tumours were well differentiated in 30% of the cases, moderately differentiated in 38%, and poorly differentiated in 28%. Information on tumour grade and stage was missing in 3 cases. The cause-specific survival was 48% at 5 years and 29% at 10 years. The 18 patients with a family history of prostate cancer had a somewhat better prognosis than the patients with a negative family history, though the difference did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.08).

Early onset prostate cancer is a serious disease with high mortality. The proportions of patients with poorly differentiated and metastatic tumours appeared to be larger than for cases diagnosed later in life, but this could be explained by selection bias since younger men may have a lower probability of having asymptomatic localized tumours diagnosed. Family history of prostate cancer was not significantly associated with prognosis.