Support for the use of objective comorbidity indices in the assessment of noncancer death risk in prostate cancer patients

Abstract

Background Prostate cancer management involves a balance between the risks of cancer death against those from other causes. To evaluate the performance of several comorbidity indices in predicting comorbid death in a prostate cancer radiotherapy cohort. Methods 2,131 men with localised prostate cancer treated with radical radiotherapy between 1999 and 2007 were studied. Tumour features, androgen deprivation usage, age, number of prescription medications (PMN) and Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 Index (ACE-27) were recorded. Death from prostate cancer (DPC) and death from other causes (DOC) were analysed as competing causes of death using a competing risks model, with discrimination assessed ..