Abstract
BackgroundProstate cancer is the most common cancer among men in many countries. The aim of the present study was to find out how the symptoms leading to a diagnosis, diagnostic procedures and stages of the disease among prostate cancer patients have changed over a period of 20 years.MethodsThis retrospective chart review consisted of 421 prostate cancer patients whose treatment was started in the years 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2002 at the Oulu University Hospital. Earlier prostatic disorders, specific urological symptoms, diagnostic procedures, the TNM classification and histological grade were recorded.ResultsThe number of symptom-free prostate cancer patients increased over the 20 years, as did the number of men suffering from chronic prostatitis, although the latter increase was not statistically significant. A drop in the number of clinical T4 cases and increase of clinical T1 and clinical T2 cases was recorded but no clear change in the histological distribution occurred. The 5-year prostate cancer-specific survival improved significantly over the 20 years. The urologist was found to be the person who was contacted first most often.ConclusionsOur data indicate that the number of prostate cancer patients has increased hugely over the period from 1982 to 2002 and although the clinical T stage has moved towards earlier stages, the proportion of well differentiated cancers remains low, so that most patients have clinically significant cancer with the need of some form of therapy. Further, prostate cancer-specific survival improved significantly over the period.
Highlights
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in many countries
The aim of the current study was to evaluate how the symptoms leading to prostate cancer diagnosis and the diagnostic procedures used have evolved in Northern
Mean age of prostate cancer patients whose treatment was started in the years 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2002 was 70.5 years, 70.8 years (49–88 years), 71.2 years (54–88 years), 69.6 years (48–91 years) and 67 years (40–91 years), respectively
Summary
The aim of the present study was to find out how the symptoms leading to a diagnosis, diagnostic procedures and stages of the disease among prostate cancer patients have changed over a period of 20 years. The aim of the current study was to evaluate how the symptoms leading to prostate cancer diagnosis and the diagnostic procedures used have evolved in Northern. Finland over a period of 20 years and what effects these changes have brought with them. This period was selected mainly to evaluate the impact of PSA testing on these diagnostic and clinical aspects, as the early years reflect the pre-PSA era and the PSA test has been available in Finland since 1992
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