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Objective. To evaluate the reliability of cause-of-death diagnoses among prostate cancer patients. Material and methods. Information from death certificates obtained from the Swedish Death Register was compared with systematically reviewed medical records from the population-based Swedish Regional Prostate Cancer Register, South-East Region. In total, 5675 patients were included who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1987 and 1999 and who had died before 1 January 2003. Results. The proportion of prostate cancer cases classified as having died from prostate cancer was 3% higher in the official death certificates than in the reviewed records [0.03, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02 to 0.04]. Overall agreement between the official cause of death and the reviewed data was 86% (95% CI 85 to 87%). A higher accuracy was observed among men with localized disease (88%, 95% CI 87 to 89%), aged 60 years or younger at death (96%, 95% CI 93 to 100%), or who had undergone curative treatment (91%, 95% CI 88 to 95%). This study indicates a relatively high reliability of official cause-of-death statistics of prostate cancer patients in Sweden. Conclusion. Mortality data obtained from death certificates may be useful in the evaluation of large-scale prostate cancer intervention programmes, especially among younger patients with localized disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To analyse the management of muscle-invasive bladder cancer in a population-based national register, and specifically to investigate the role of curative therapy (i.e. cystectomy or radiotherapy) in relation to patient, tumour and hospital characteristics. Material and methods. The Swedish Bladder Cancer Register covers more than 90% of all patients in the country who have been diagnosed with such disease since 1997. Results from 1997-2003 were analysed regarding curative-intent treatment given within 3-6 months of diagnosis of muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Results. In total, 3463 patients with clinical T2-T4 bladder cancer were included in the analysis. Of those patients, 1426 (41%) received curative-intent treatment in the form of radiotherapy (285, 20%) or cystectomy (1141, 80%). Male gender, age < 76 years, favourable TNM category and registration at a high-volume hospital were associated with such treatment. Curative-intent treatment was given to significantly more patients registered at high-volume hospitals (1003/2227, 45%) than at low-volume hospitals (423/1235, 34%) (χ2=37.7, p<0.00001). Cystectomy was performed more often in those registered at high-volume than at low-volume hospitals (826/2227, 37%, and 316/1235, 26%, respectively, χ2=47.3, p<0.00001). Conclusions. Lower rates of curative-intent treatment were found in patients registered at low-volume than at high-volume facilities, and the same was seen when comparing females with males, and patients aged 76-80 years with younger patients. Since many of these bladder cancer patients were registered at and eventually treated at hospitals handling fewer than 10 such cases annually, it seems desirable to concentrate treatment of this disease at more specialized centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]