PROSTATE CARCINOMA AND LONG-TERM SURVIVAL

BACKGROUND. The long term survival of patients with prostate carcinoma is not well understood. The objective of the current study was to inv estigate the temporal trend of prostate carcinoma mortality in patient s who survived greater than or equal to 10 years after diagnosis. METH ODS. Men with prostate carcinoma diagnosed from 1958 through 1983 in t he Stockholm/Gotland region in Sweden and who survived 10 years after the diagnosis were investigated regarding survival beyond 10 years. Th e expected survival was calculated from an annually selected age and t ime-matched cohort of men from the general population in the same geog raphic region. The relative survival was expressed as the annual quoti ent of the observed survival over the expected survival. RESULTS. The authors identified 1896 patients who had survived greater than or equa l to 10 years. The relative survival decreased up to approximately 18 years after the diagnosis, whereupon it reached a plateau that was con stant up to 30 years after diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS. Men with prostate c arcinoma surviving greater than or equal to 10 years have an excess mo rtality compared with age-matched controls. This excess mortality ceas es 20 to 23 years after diagnosis and the observed and the expected su rvival are similar, indicating few if any, deaths from prostate carcin oma from there on. (C) 1997 American Cancer Society.