Comorbidity in patients with prostate cancer and its relevance to treatment choice

Objective To evaluate the prevalence of comorbidity among patients with pro state cancer in relation to tumour and patient characteristics and to asses s if comorbidity was a determining factor in the treatment choice for patie nts with localized prostate cancer. Patients and methods Serious comorbidity was recorded in the Eindhoven Canc er Registry (according to a published list of such diseases) for all patien ts (2941) with prostate cancer newly diagnosed between 1993 and 1996 in the southern part of The Netherlands. Logistic regression was then used to ass ess which factors determined the treatment choice. Results The prevalence of at least one serious comorbid condition was 38% f or patients aged 60-69 years, 48% when aged 70-74 years and 53% for those a ged greater than or equal to 75 years, the cardiovascular and chronic obstr uctive lung diseases being most frequent. Patients aged 60-69 years were mo re likely to be treated with radical prostatectomy for moderately different iated tumour confined to the prostate, or when younger and diagnosed in a h ospital with a high case-load. The presence of comorbidity had little influ ence of this choice. Conclusion Comorbidity was common in patients with prostate cancer, but the decision of urologists in the southern Netherlands to use radical prostate ctomy was determined largely by the patient's age and the urologist's exper ience.