Interpolation to define clinical tumor stage in prostate cancer using clinical description of digital rectal examination

Abstract

Aim: This study aims to assess characteristics of patients with prostate cancer for whom clinical T stage category (cT) was not documented in the medical record and assess whether specialists had concordant conclusions regarding cT based on digital rectal examination (DRE) notes. Methods: Data from the Prostate Cancer Outcome Registry – Victoria (PCOR-Vic) were interrogated. Four specialists independently assigned cT to DRE notes. Words, or part thereof, associated with agreement between clinicians were identified. Results: Of the 10 587 men, cT was documented in 8758 (82.7%) cases. Multivariate analysis indicated that poor cT documentation was associated with older patient age (odds ratio [..