Familial and sporadic prostate cancer cases share similar histories and outcomes

Whether prostate cancer is inherited or acquired does not make much difference in terms of how the malignancy develops or the outcome after radical prostatectomy, according to a recent report.

Previous studies examining the prognosis of each type of cancer have yielded conflicting results. While none have suggested that sporadic cancer has a worse prognosis, a few have shown inferior outcomes for familial cancer.In a study centered in southwestern Europe, Dr. Abdel-Rahmene Azzouzi, from the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, UK, and colleagues compared the presenting features and post-surgical outcomes of 85 patients with sporadic cancer and 37 patients with familial cancer. The average follow-up period in the former and latter groups was 51.8 and 35 months, respectively.The researchers’ findings are published in the June issue of Urology.The authors were unable to identify any clinical or biological features before or after surgery that distinguished familial cancer patients from sporadic ones.The biochemical relapse rate in the familial group was 40.5%, not significantly higher than the rate in the sporadic group–32.9% (p = 0.42). Similarly, the biochemical relapse-free survival curves of the two groups were also not significantly different.In agreement with recent reports in American and northern European populations, the new findings indicate that “familial prostate cancer does not appear to be more aggressive than sporadic prostate cancer,” Dr. Azzouzi and colleagues note. “The natural history of prostate cancer seems to follow the same path whether the triggering point is inherited or acquired for this subset of patients during this period,” they conclude.(Source: Urology 2003;61:1193-1197: Reuters Health: July 18, 2003:Oncolink)