Clinico-Pathological Characterization of Hereditary, Familial and Sporadic Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Aim: To characterize familial prostate cancer including hereditary prostate cancer and assess the disease-free survival following radical prostatectomy. Methods: A self-administered written questionnaire was forwarded to 709 prostatectomized patients from the Aarhus Prostate Cancer Study containing questions about cases of prostate cancer (PC), age at diagnosis, vital status, and age at death for all first-degree relatives. Patients were then divided into groups according to their family history: hereditary prostate cancer (HPC), familial prostate cancer (FPC), and sporadic prostate cancer (SPC) groups. The information from a subset of both FPC (n = 17) and SPC (n = 17) groups were validated in the Danish Cancer Register and the Civil Registration System. Between groups, we described the association of age, prostatespecific antigen (PSA), postoperative Gleason score and T Stage. A Kaplan-Meier curve demonstrated postoperative disease-free survival in each group. Results: The response rate was 81% (574/709). About 21% of the patients were categorized in the FPC group, of which 7% were identified as having HPC. The median follow-up time was 63 months for HPC, 65 months for FPC and 88 months for SPC. Overall, there was no significant difference between groups in clinical features and disease-free survival except that patients with HPC were significantly associated with younger age than sporadic cases (p = 0.02). The proportion of self-reported PC diagnoses confirmed in the cancer register was 27.8%. The index persons with SPC reported no PC in first-degree relatives and none was found the cancer register. Conclusion: Overall, we found no difference in clinical characteristics and survival, following radical prostatectomy except that patients with HPC were younger at diagnosis. These results are in line with previously reported data.