Age-adjusted comorbidity score stratifies mortality in prostate CA

(HealthDay)—An age-adjusted prostate cancer-specific comorbidity index (PCCI) can stratify the risk of long-term nonprostate cancer-related mortality, according to a study published in the July issue of The Journal of Urology.

Timothy J. Daskivich, M.D., from the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California-Los Angeles, and colleagues sampled 1,598 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1998 and 2004. The authors determined the risk of nonprostate cancer-related mortality associated with age at diagnosis and PCCI score in testing and validation cohorts. Risk was converted into a 10-point scoring system.

The researchers found that in the testing and validation cohorts, PCCI score and age correlated with similar hazards of other-cause mortality. Equivalent risks were seen for each six-year increase in age at diagnosis of greater than 60 years and for one additional PCCI point. The age-adjusted PCCI scores were strongly predictive of other-cause mortality. For a score of 0, 1 to 2, 3 to 4, 5 to 6, 7 to 9, and 10+, the subhazard ratios of other-cause mortality versus 0 were 2.0, 4.0, 8.7, 14.7, and 43.2, respectively; 10-year cumulative incidence of other-cause mortality was 10, 19, 35, 60, 79, and 99 percent, respectively.

"The age-adjusted PCCI strongly stratifies the risk of long-term, other-cause mortality," the authors write. "It may be incorporated into shared decision-making to decrease overtreatment of older and chronically ill men with prostate cancer."

One author disclosed a financial tie to WiserCare.