Differences between rural and urban prostate cancer patients

BACKGROUND: We hypothesized that the residency status (rural area [RA] vs urban clusters [UC] vs urban areas [UA]) affects stage and cancer-specific mortality (CSM) in contemporary newly diagnosed prostate cancer (PCa) patients of all stages, regardless of treatment.

METHODS: Newly diagnosed PCa patients with available residency status were abstracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (2004-2016). Propensity-score (PS) matching, cumulative incidence plots, multivariate competing-risks regression (CRR) models were used.

RESULTS: Of 531,468 PCa patients of all stages, 6653 (1.3%) resided in RA, 50,932 (9.6%) in UC and 473,883 (89.2%) in UA. No statistically significant or clinically meaningful differences in stage at presentation or CSM were recorded. Conversely, 10-year other cause-mortality (OCM) rates were 27.2% vs 23.7% vs 18.9% (p < 0.001) in RA vs UC vs UA patients, respectively. In CRR models, RA (subhazard ratio [SHR] 1.38; p < 0.001) and UC (SHR 1.18; p < 0.001) were independent predictors for higher OCM relative to UA. These differences remained statistically significant in fully PS-adjusted multivariate CRR models.

CONCLUSION: RA, and to a lesser extent UC, PCa patients are at higher risk of OCM than UA patients. Higher OCM may indicate shorter life expectancy and should be considered in treatment decision making.