Purpose: Prostate cancer (CaP) in younger men (age ≤50 years) appears to present differently compared with older men. This study describes CaP characteristics and outcomes in Australian young men.
Methods: The South Australian Prostate Cancer Clinical Outcomes Collaborative database was used to identify men diagnosed with CaP 1998-2012. Men were stratified by age at diagnosis into groups ≤50, 50-70 and ≥70 years. Primary outcomes of cumulative biochemical recurrence (BCR) and cumulative prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM) were assessed at 5 and 10 years.
Results: In total, 7018 men were included. At time of diagnosis, 182 (2.6 %) were aged ≤50 years. Median follow-up exceeded 4 years. Younger men had a greater proportion of T stage <2 disease, lower median PSA and higher rates of Gleason score <7 (all p < 0.001). They were more likely to experience active surveillance (AS) (4.9, 3.1, 1.5 %) or radical prostatectomy (RP) (70, 55, 8 %) and less likely radiotherapy (13, 24, 29 %) as their principal modality (all p < 0.001). Although only 4.9 % underwent AS, 48 % of men ≤50 years were eligible for AS. Men ≤50 years had both the lowest unadjusted cumulative BCR and PCSM at 10 years. After multivariate analysis, BCR was not significantly different. Sample size limited multivariate analysis of PCSM.
Conclusions: In our cohort, men ≤50 years with CaP had less aggressive clinical characteristics, but were more likely to undergo RP. They appear to experience lower unadjusted PCSM, but similar rates of adjusted BCR. Further studies are needed to assess whether AS is appropriately utilised in these men.
Keywords: Biochemical recurrence; Mortality; Prostate cancer; Young men.