Mara M. Epstein, Sc.D., from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues used data from the Swedish Cancer Registry (1961 to 2008; 210,112 patients) and from the U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (1973 to 2008; 490,341 patients) to analyze causes of death among all incident prostate cancer cases.

The researchers found that, during follow-up through 2008, prostate cancer accounted for 52 and 30 percent of all reported deaths in the Swedish and U.S. prostate cancer cohorts, respectively, which corresponded to 35 and 16 percent, of those diagnosed with prostate cancer who died from the disease. The cumulative incidence of prostate cancer-specific death decreased during follow-up in both populations, while the cumulative incidences of death from ischemic heart disease and non-prostate cancer remained constant. In Sweden and the United States, the five-year cumulative incidence of death from prostate cancer was 29 and 11 percent, respectively.

"Managing prostate cancer patients with a lifestyle approach could increase the duration and quality of life among men living with prostate cancer, arguably more than aggressive treatment, by addressing increasingly dominant, yet preventable, causes of death," the authors write.

Abstract
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