Trends in initial management of prostate cancer in New Hampshire

• Published in: Cancer causes & control 2015-06, Vol.26 (6), p.923-929
• Main Authors: Ingimarsson, Johann P., Celaya, Maria O., Laviolette, Michael, Rees, Judy R., Hyams, Elias S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Biopsy; Cancer Research; Cancer therapies; Disease Management; Endocrine therapy; Epidemiology; Hematology; Humans; Male; Metastasis; Middle Aged; Mortality; New Hampshire; Oncology; Original Paper; Patients; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - trends; Prostate - surgery; Prostate cancer; Prostate-Specific Antigen - blood; Prostatic Neoplasms - diagnosis; Prostatic Neoplasms - radiotherapy; Prostatic Neoplasms - surgery; Prostatic Neoplasms - therapy; Public Health; Radiation therapy; Surgery; Surveillance; Trends; Urology; Watchful Waiting
• ISSN: 0957-5243; 1573-7225
• DOI: 10.1007/s10552-015-0574-8

Purpose: Prostate cancer management strategies are evolving with increased understanding of the disease. Specifically, there is emerging evidence that "low-risk" cancer is best treated with observation, while localized "high-risk" cancer requires aggressive curative therapy. In this study, we evaluated trends in management of prostate cancer in New Hampshire to determine adherence to evidence-based practice. Methods: From the New Hampshire State Cancer Registry, cases of clinically localized prostate cancer diagnosed in 2004–2011 were identified and classified according to D'Amico criteria. Initial treatment modality was recorded as surgery, radiation therapy, expectant management, or hormone therapy. Temporal trends were assessed by Chi-square for trend. Results: Of 6,203 clinically localized prostate cancers meeting inclusion criteria, 34, 30, and 28 % were low-, intermediate-, and high-risk disease, respectively. For lowrisk disease, use of expectant management (17–42 %, p < 0.001) and surgery (29–39 %, p < 0.001) increased, while use of radiation therapy decreased (49–19 %, p < 0.001). For intermediate-risk disease, use of surgery increased (24–50 %, p < 0.001), while radiation decreased (58–34 %, p < 0.001). Hormonal therapy alone was rarely used for low- and intermediate-risk disease. For high-risk patients, surgery increased (38–47 %, p = 0.003) and radiation decreased (41–38 %, p = 0.026), while hormonal therapy and expectant management remained stable. Discussion: There are encouraging trends in the management of clinically localized prostate cancer in New Hampshire, including less aggressive treatment of low-risk cancer and increasing surgical treatment of high-risk disease.