Osservational Study on Early Diagnosis of Prostate Carcinoma in Sicily and Calabria

The diagnosis of prostate carcinoma has been monitored in Sicily and Calabria for one year.Material e Methods Twenty-seven urological centres of Sicily and Calabria joined the study. Detailed informations about age, familiarity, PSA, Gleason score and TNM stage at diagnosis were centralized between november 2001 and november 2002.Results 721 patients have been recruited. The median age was 73 years. More than 80% of the patients were older than 65 years. Median PSA was 14 ng/ml. The clinical stage at diagnosis was T1c in 33% of patients and 67% had an organ confined prostate cancer (T1-T2). Familiarity was detected in 8% of cases. Age and PSA at diagnosis in these patients were similar to those of the remaining population. However, only 18% of them had a T1 tumor, emphasizing the delay in diagnosis in these patients. Although only 10% of the patients shows at diagnosis a metastatic tumor, 29% only are fit for radical prostatectomy in according to age, PSA and stage.