Oncological outcomes of the prostate cancer patients registered in 2004. Report from the cancer registration committee of the JUA

In 2001, the Cancer Registration Committee of the Japanese Urological Association initiated a data collection of prostate cancer patients into a computer-based database. The aim of the present study is to report the clinical and pathological characteristics and outcomes of prostate cancer patients diagnosed in 2004 in Japan. Overall, 11385 patients from 239 institutions were registered into the database. After excluding 1105 patients because of insufficient data, duplication or insufficient follow up, 10280 patients were eligible for the analysis. Most of them (10198, 99.2%) were Japanese and 1195 (11.6%) had metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis. The mean and median follow up was 53.2 months and 61.5 months, respectively. The 5-year overall and prostate cancer-specific survival rate was 89.7% and 94.8%, respectively. The 5-year prostate cancer-specific survival rate of M0 and M1 disease was 98.4% and 61.1%, respectively. For 8424 cases of organ-confined or regional disease, Japanese urologists used as the initial treatment hormone ablation therapy alone (3360, 39.9%), radical prostatectomy (3140, 38.1%), radiation therapy (1530, 18.2%) and watchful waiting (394, 4.7%) including active surveillance or palliative observation. This is the first large population report of survival data in Japanese prostate cancer patients. In Japan, the disease population, survival period with metastatic disease and ratio of patients having hormone ablation therapy differ from those in Western countries. (author)