Clinical and prognostic significance of changes in haemoglobin concentration during 1 year of androgen-deprivation therapy for hormone-naïve bone-metastatic prostate cancer.

Objective: To estimate the strength of change in haemoglobin (Hb) concentrations during 1 year of androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) as a predictor of survival in hormone-naïve patients with bone-metastatic (Stage M1b) prostate cancer.

Patients And Methods: The patients included in this study were taken from the randomised trial (number 5) carried out by the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group (SPCG), comparing parenteral oestrogen with total androgen blockade (TAB) in hormone-naïve M1b prostate cancer. We identified 597 men where Hb measurements were made at enrolment, as well as at 3, 6 and 12 months of ADT.

Clinical presentation and predictors of survival related to extent of bone metastasis in 900 prostate cancer patients.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of bone metastasis on survival and quality of life (QoL) in men with hormone-naïve prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: The study included 900 patients from a randomized trial (No. 5) by the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group, comparing parenteral oestrogen with total androgen blockade.

The Long-term Disease-specific Mortality of Low-risk Localized Prostate Cancer: A Prospective Population-based Register Study Over Two Decades.

Objective: To identify prognostic factors, and to estimate the long-term disease-specific and annual disease-specific mortality rates of low-risk prostate cancer patients from the early prostate-specific antigen (PSA) era.

Patients And Methods: We studied data extracted from the Southeast Region Prostate Cancer Register in Sweden, on1300 patients with clinically localized low-risk tumors, T1-2, PSA level ≤10 µg/L and Gleason scores 2-6 or World Health Organization Grade 1, diagnosed 1992-2003. The Cox multivariate regression model was used to evaluate factors predicting survival.

Predictors of early androgen deprivation treatment failure in prostate cancer with bone metastases.

Approximately 15% of men with hormone naïve metastatic prostate cancer primarily fail to respond to androgen deprivation treatment (ADT). The reason why the response to ADT differs in this subgroup of men with prostate cancer remains unclear. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of these men and to thereby define predictors of early ADT failure in prostate cancer patients with bone metastases.

Clinical characteristics and quality-of-life in patients surviving a decade of prostate cancer with bone metastases.

Objective: To describe characteristics and quality-of-life (QoL), and to define factors associated with long-term survival in a subgroup of patients with prostate cancer with M1b disease.

Patients And Methods: The study was based on 915 patients from a prospective randomised multicentre trial (No. 5) by the Scandinavian Prostate Cancer Group, comparing parenteral oestrogen with total androgen blockade.

Treatment with curative intent and survival in men with high-risk prostate cancer. A population-based study of 11 380 men with serum PSA level 20-100 ng/mL.

Unlabelled: WHAT'S KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT? AND WHAT DOES THE STUDY ADD?: There are two randomized controlled trials showing that radiotherapy can be beneficial for men with locally advanced prostate cancer. The present study confirms the importance of curative treatment for men with high-risk prostate cancer.

Objective: To investigate the influence of curative treatment on cause-specific mortality in men diagnosed with prostate cancer (PCa) with serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels between 20 and 100 ng/mL.

Cohort Profile: the National Prostate Cancer Register of Sweden and Prostate Cancer data Base Sweden 2.0.

In 1987, the first Regional Prostate Cancer Register was set up in the South-East health-care region of Sweden. Other health-care regions joined and since 1998 virtually all prostate cancer (PCa) cases are registered in the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden to provide data for quality assurance, bench marking and clinical research. NPCR includes data on tumour stage, Gleason score, serum level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and primary treatment.

Inflammation, focal atrophic lesions, and prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia with respect to risk of lethal prostate cancer.

Background: A challenge in prostate cancer (PCa) management is identifying potentially lethal disease at diagnosis. Inflammation, focal prostatic atrophy, and prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) are common in prostate tumor specimens, but it is not clear whether these lesions have prognostic significance.

Methods: We conducted a case-control study nested in a cohort of men diagnosed with stage T1a-b PCa through transurethral resection of the prostate in Sweden.

Significance of pretreatment cardiovascular morbidity as a risk factor during treatment with parenteral oestrogen or combined androgen deprivation of 915 patients with metastasized prostate cancer: evaluation of cardiovascular events in a randomized trial.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate prognostic risk factors for cardiovascular events during treatment of metastatic prostate cancer patients with high-dose parenteral polyoestradiol phosphate (PEP, Estradurin®) or combined androgen deprivation (CAD) with special emphasis on pretreatment cardiovascular disease.

Material And Methods: Nine-hundred and fifteen patients with T0-4, Nx, M1, G1-3, hormone- naïve prostate cancer were randomized to treatment with PEP 240 mg i.m.

Randomised prostate cancer screening trial: 20 year follow-up.

Objective: To assess whether screening for prostate cancer reduces prostate cancer specific mortality.

Design: Population based randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Department of Urology, Norrköping, and the South-East Region Prostate Cancer Register.

Tumour grade, treatment, and relative survival in a population-based cohort of men with potentially curable prostate cancer.

Background: There is insufficient information regarding the benefit of treatment with curative intent for men with localised poorly differentiated prostate cancer (PCa).

Objective: To evaluate relative survival in men with potentially curable PCa in relation to Gleason score (GS) and treatment as practiced in the community at large.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A population-based study including all men with localised PCa registered in Sweden's National Prostate Cancer Register.

PSA kinetics provide improved prediction of survival in metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

Objectives: To assess the value of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) kinetics in predicting survival and relate this to the baseline variables in men with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC).

Methods: The data from 417 men with HRPC were included in a logistic regression model that included hemoglobin, PSA, alkaline phosphatase, Soloway score, and performance status pain analgesic score at baseline. The posttreatment variables included the PSA level halving time after the start of treatment, PSA level at nadir, interval to nadir, PSA velocity (PSAV), PSA doubling time after reaching a nadir, patient age, and treatment.

Reliability of death certificates in prostate cancer patients.

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of cause-of-death diagnoses among prostate cancer patients.

Material And Methods: Information from death certificates obtained from the Swedish Death Register was compared with systematically reviewed medical records from the population-based Swedish Regional Prostate Cancer Register, South-East Region. In total, 5675 patients were included who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1987 and 1999 and who had died before 1 January 2003.

Estrogen-dependent signaling in a molecularly distinct subclass of aggressive prostate cancer.

Background: The majority of prostate cancers harbor gene fusions of the 5'-untranslated region of the androgen-regulated transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) promoter with erythroblast transformation-specific transcription factor family members. The common fusion between TMPRESS2 and v-ets erythroblastosis virus E26 oncogene homolog (avian) (ERG) is associated with a more aggressive clinical phenotype, implying the existence of a distinct subclass of prostate cancer defined by this fusion.

Methods: We used complementary DNA-mediated annealing, selection, ligation, and extension to determine the expression profiles of 6144 transcriptionally informative genes in archived biopsy samples from 455 prostate cancer patients in the Swedish Watchful Waiting cohort (1987-1999) and the United States-based Physicians(') Health Study cohort (1983-2003).

Parenteral estrogen versus combined androgen deprivation in the treatment of metastatic prostatic cancer: part 2. Final evaluation of the Scandinavian Prostatic Cancer Group (SPCG) Study No. 5.

Objective: To compare parenteral estrogen therapy in the form of high-dose polyestradiol phosphate (PEP; Estradurin) with combined androgen deprivation (CAD) in the treatment of prostate cancer patients with skeletal metastases. The aim of the study was to compare anticancer efficacy and adverse events, especially cardiovascular events.

Material And Methods: In total, 910 eligible patients with T0-4, NX, M1, G1-3 prostate cancer with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0-2 were randomized to treatment with either PEP 240 mg i.

The impact of prostate-specific antigen level at diagnosis on the relative survival of 28,531 men with localized carcinoma of the prostate.

Background: To evaluate the predictive value of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in a population-based cohort, the authors analyzed relative survival in all men with localized prostate cancer who were registered in the Swedish National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) from 1996 to 2005.

Methods: All men aged <75 years with localized tumors were identified in the NPCR. A Poisson regression analysis was performed using observed death as response and the expected death rate as offset.

Prediction of survival of metastatic prostate cancer based on early serial measurements of prostate specific antigen and alkaline phosphatase.

Purpose: We determined how serial measurements of prostate specific antigen and alkaline phosphatase can be used to predict survival early in the course of hormone treated metastatic prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: The study was based on a prospective randomized trial of 915 patients with metastatic prostate carcinoma designed to compare parenteral estrogen (polyestradiol phosphate) vs total androgen blockade. We included 697 men who survived at least 6 months and had complete serial measurements of prostate specific antigen and alkaline phosphatase.

Clinical characteristics and primary treatment of prostate cancer in Sweden between 1996 and 2005.

Objective: The incidence of prostate cancer is rising rapidly in Sweden and there is a need to better understand the pattern of diagnosis, tumor characteristics and treatment.

Material And Methods: Between 1996 and 2005, all new cases of adenocarcinoma of the prostate gland were intended to be registered in the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR). This register contains information on diagnosing unit, date of diagnosis, cause of diagnosis, tumor grade, tumor stage according to the TNM classification in force, serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels at diagnosis and primary treatment given within the first 6 months after diagnosis.

Androgen receptor and vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms and prostate cancer risk.

We study the CAG repeat region in exon 1 of the androgen receptor (AR) and the TaqI polymorphism in exon 9 of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) and the association with prostate cancer. 137 incidentally discovered, histologically verified prostate cancers were analysed for CAG repeat length in AR and genotype at the TaqI site of the VDR. 124 control subjects were analysed to determine the CAG repeat length and TaqI genotype determined for 176 control subjects.

Duration of testosterone suppression after a 9.45 mg implant of the GnRH-analogue buserelin in patients with localised carcinoma of the prostate a 12-month follow-up study.

Objectives: (1) To determine the duration of androgen deprivation after a single buserelin implant 9.45 mg in the neoadjuvant setting in combination with curative radiation therapy of carcinoma of the prostate, and (2) to evaluate the time to recovery of gonadal function, and the incidence and duration of hypogonadal symptoms.

Methods: We prospectively evaluated 21 men with carcinoma of the prostate who received one implant of 9.

Diffusion and economic consequences of health technologies in prostate cancer care in Sweden, 1991-2002.

Objective: To describe the diffusion of six main health technologies used for management of prostate cancer, to estimate the economic consequences of technological changes, and to explore factors behind the diffusion.

Methods: Data describing the diffusion 1991-2002 were obtained from population-based databases. Costs were obtained from Linköping University Hospital and Apoteket AB.