Five year outcomes of care for prostate cancer in New South Wales

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Australian males after non-melanocytic skin cancer. Each year more than 10,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and over 2,500 die from it. While the issue of early detection of prostate cancer through the use of Prostate Specific Antigen test continues to raise debate, the longer term quality of life outcomes after treatment for this disease remain of great interest to patients, clinicians and health planners. The Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study is an already established research project that was established in 2000 with the aim of documenting the quality of life outcomes of 2000 men with prostate cancer to five years after diagnosis. The Department of Veterans Affairs funded the study between 2000 and 2005, to establish the cohort, collect patterns of care information from clinicians and quality of life information from participants to 3 years post diagnosis. We are now seeking funds to complete the quality of life follow up for each surviving participant at five years after diagnosis. We also will assess rate of recurrence of prostate cancer to five years and seek support to be able to undertake linkage with death certificate information to determine the vital status of each study subject and begin analysis of five-year survival rates. Five-year quality of life information will be the main endpoint for this part of the study. Initial analysis of the three-year data showed a continued improvement in outcomes related to urinary and sexual function. We wish to determine whether these improvements continue to five years and the extent of the difference, at that time, between men with prostate cancer and men without prostate cancer (controls), whom we are also studying. This information will be uniquely useful in helping men make decisions about treatment options when diagnosed with prostate cancer.