Background: Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men worldwide. Several factorssuch as availability of screening tests, and dietary, other lifestyle, environmental and genetic influences contributeto worldwide disparities in prostate cancer incidence and mortality rates. Our aims were to investigate patientcharacteristics at the time of diagnosis, common treatment strategies employed and survival in an Iranian malepopulation with prostate cancer. Materials and Methods: Archives of Pathology Departments of five referralcenters affiliated with the School of Medicine of Shahid Sadoughi University in Yazd province were reviewed.Paraffin-embedded blocks were reviewed by two independent pathologists to confirm the diagnosis. Thelatest modification of the Gleason Scoring System was adopted to determine pathological grading. Followingpathological evaluation, patients were contacted via telephone to acquire information regarding their currentstatus. Results: Pathology blocks were available for 113 patients. However, upon phone contacts, we were unableto determine the survival status in 23 patients (response rate=83%). Therefore, 90 patients were enrolled in thefinal analysis. The median follow-up time was 6.0 years (ranging from 0.3 to 8.8 years). There were 30 deathattributed to prostate cancer in the study group. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patient age at the timeof diagnosis was a significant predictor of survival. Another significant predictor of poorer survival was highertumor grade. Conclusions: Our observations indicate that age and pathological grade can negatively affectsurvival of individuals with prostate cancer in Iran.
)