Survival of male genital cancers (prostate, testis and penis) in Europe 1999–2007: Results from the EUROCARE-5 study
Introduction
Male genital tumours combined, i.e. prostate, testicular and penis cancers, show different frequency and risk factors. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among European males [1]. The incidence rate varies by more than sevenfold (25–193 per 100,000) [2] probably because of the different use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test which leads to identify many non-lethal diseases and therefore to inflate incidence and survival. The rise in incidence, observed since late ‘80s, seems to have come to a halt in some countries like Finland, France and Austria [3], and mortality has levelled-off since mid-1990 [4]. Cancer of the penis is a very rare cancer with an incidence of 0.6 per 1,000,000/year [5]. Testicular cancer is rare overall, but is the most common cancer in young men and the incidence is increasing in the vast majority of European countries [6]. Its incidence rate varies at least 20-fold world-wide (>12–<1 per 100,000) [2].
With this background, this paper will contribute to the descriptive epidemiology of male genital cancers in Europe with updated estimates of survival and survival trends in Europe and across European areas.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
To estimate the relative survival (RS) for adults (age ⩾15 years) diagnosed in 2000–2007 we used:
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for penis and testicular cancers, 86 population-based cancer registries (CRs),
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for prostate cancers 87 CRs (we added 1 specialised CR with information on prostate) [7]. Data were from 29 countries. We included in the analyses 13,236, 56,397 and 951,642 records of penile, testicular and prostate cancers, respectively.
To analyse survival time trends from 1999 to 2007 we used 44 CRs providing data for
Penis cancers
One and 5-year RS of penile cancer patients were 86% and 68%, respectively (Fig. 1). The conditional survival was 80%. Five-year RS decreased with increasing age, from 81% in the age group 15–44 years to 62% in those aged ⩾75 years (Fig. 1).
The highest age-standardised 5-year RS was observed for Northern European patients (75%). It was 69% for those from Central, Southern Europe and Ireland/UK and it was 60% for patients from Eastern Europe. Age-standardised 5-year RS was highest for patients
Discussion
Our study confirmed a good 5-year RS for all male genital cancer patients however, the survival was lower for patients living in Eastern Europe compared to patients living in other European countries. We didn’t observe major improvement of survival for penile cancer patients. Patients with testicular cancers living in Eastern Europe didn’t reach the same high level of survival of those living in other European countries. Survival for prostate cancers increased but biases could contribute to the
Sources of support (grants)
The Compagnia di San Paolo, the Fondazione Cariplo Italy, the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Finalizzata 2009, RF-2009-1529710) and the European Commission (European Action Against Cancer, EPAAC, Joint Action No 20102202).
Role of funding source
The study was funded by the Compagnia di San Paolo, the Fondazione Cariplo Italy, the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Finalizzata 2009, RF-2009-1529710) and the European Commission (European Action Against Cancer, EPAAC, Joint Action No 20102202). The funding sources had no role in study design, the collection, analysis or interpretation of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the article for publication.
Conflict of interest statement
None declared.
Acknowledgements
We thank Chiara Margutti, Simone Bonfarnuzzo, Camilla Amati and Lucia Buratti for secretarial assistance.
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