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Prostate cancer in Western Australia: trends in incidence and mortality from 1985 to 1996
Author(s) -
Threlfall Timothy J,
Rouse Ian L,
English Dallas R
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1998.tb141472.x
Subject(s) - prostate cancer , medicine , incidence (geometry) , demography , cancer registry , confidence interval , cancer , prostate , mortality rate , epidemiology , gynecology , sociology , physics , optics
Objective To measure trends in recorded incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer in Western Australia from 1985 to 1996 and to relate these to prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer. Design Descriptive study based on data from the Western Australian Cancer Registry, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Health Insurance Commission. Data All newly diagnosed cases of prostate cancer and all deaths from prostate cancer in Western Australia from 1985 to 1996. Main outcome measures Recorded incidences and mortality rates for prostate cancer. Results After increasing steadily from 42 per 1 person‐years in 1985 to 61 in 1992, the recorded incidence more than doubled to 134 per 1 person‐years in 1994, then fell sharply to 87 in 1996. Among men aged 50 years or more, those aged 50‐54 years had the largest annual increases: 14% (95% confidence interval [Cl], 10%‐19%) from 1985 to 1992 and 108% (95% Cl, 84%‐134%) from 1992 to 1994. Conclusions Following a period of steady increase, the recorded incidence of prostate cancer increased dramatically in 1992 because of screening by PSA testing. From 1994, these incidence figures declined almost as sharply, partly because of reductions in testing. The mortality rate has not shown any systematic deviation from its long‐term trend.