2008 to 2020 Saw Increase in Survival for Advanced Prostate Cancer

THURSDAY, Oct. 19, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- During a time period with improvements in treatment of advanced prostate cancer, there was a simultaneous clinically meaningful increase in mean survival for men with de novo metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC), according to a study published online Oct. 2 in JAMA Network Open.

Christian Corsini, M.D., from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues examined changes in survival with the introduction of doublet therapy for advanced prostate cancer. The analysis included data from 11,382 men with de novo mCSPC identified in the Prostate Cancer data Base Sweden (2008 to 2020).

The researchers found a shift toward less advanced prostate cancer during the study period with a decrease in median prostate-specific antigen at diagnosis in men with mCSPC from 145 ng/mL to 107 ng/mL. There was an increase seen in upfront treatment with doublet therapy from 1 percent in 2016 to 44 percent in 2020. In addition, there was an increase noted in the adjusted five-year overall survival, from 26 percent in 2008 to 2012 to 35 percent in 2017 to 2020. An increase in mean survival of six months during the first five years after diagnosis was also observed (2.7 years from 2008 to 2012 to 3.2 years from 2017 to 2020).

"Between 2008 and 2020, mean survival increased with six months after five years of follow-up in all individuals with de novo mCSPC, taking changes in age, comorbidity, and cancer characteristics into account, supporting that doublet therapy is effective in clinical practice on a population basis," the authors write.

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