Severity of comorbidity and non-prostate cancer mortality in men with early-stage prostate cancer.

摘要

Comorbidity is a key consideration in clinical decision making for prostate cancer. Early-stage prostate cancer often follows an indolent course, with the significant survival advantage of definitive local therapy developing at 8 years after treatment. Men with severe comorbidity may not live long enough to benefit from aggressive therapy and therefore may prefer to treat their disease conservatively. Unfortunately, the lack of a standardized and practical comorbidity assessment tool has limited the application of comorbidity to clinical decision making in this setting.