Prostate Cancer Outcomes Associated With Clinical Depression

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Clinically depressed prostate cancer patients received definitive treatment less often and had worse survival as compared with patients without depression, data from a large cohort showed. Prasad, MD, of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and colleagues queried the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database for 2004 to 2007.

According to a study published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, patients with prostate cancer who were diagnosed with clinical depression received definitive treatment less often than their counterparts without clinical depression. Clinically depressed patients with prostate cancer were also found to have poorer survival. 

 

Sandip M. Prasad, MD, and researchers found that the mortality risk for these men was twice as much compared to patients without depression. Researchers studied this relationship by turning to the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database for 2004 to 2007. 

 

The researchers analyzed 41,275 patients that had newly diagnosed prostate cancer and found that 1,894 patients had a depressive disorder in the 2-year period before their cancer diagnosis. Through their analysis, researchers found that the patients with a depressive disorder were more likely to be older, unmarried, white, or Hispanic; lived in nonmetropolitan areas with a lower median income; and showed signs of increased comorbidities. 

 

In addition, this subgroup was more likely to enter expectant management, also called watchful waiting, instead of definitive treatment, such as radiotherapy or radical prostatectomy. The researchers said these findings warrant further study because both prostate cancer and clinical depression are relatively common for men living in the United States.