Total and specific complementary and alternative medicine use in a large cohort of men with prostate cancer

OBJECTIVES

To assess specific complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor (CaPSURE), a large, community-based national registry of men with prostate cancer.

METHODS

We examined more than 50 types of CAM use in a large, national, community-based registry of men with prostate cancer (CaPSURE). Participants completed biannual surveys within 2 years of diagnosis and treatment. We analyzed associations of CAM use with sociodemographic and clinical features, using chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS

One third of 2582 respondents reported using CAM. Common practices included vitamin and mineral supplements (26%), herbs (16%), antioxidants (13%), and CAM for prostate health (12%; eg, saw palmetto, selenium, vitamin E, lycopene). In multivariate analyses, users were more likely to have other comorbid conditions, worse cancer grade at diagnosis, higher incomes, more education, and to live in the West.

CONCLUSIONS

Complementary and alternative medicine use was associated with sociodemographic and clinical characteristics in this large sample of men with prostate cancer. These results should be considered by health care professionals counseling men with prostate cancer regarding diet and secondary prevention.

History of diabetes, clinical features of prostate cancer, and prostate cancer recurrence-data from CaPSURE (United States)

OBJECTIVES

There is a growing epidemiologic literature suggesting an inverse association between history of diabetes and risk of incident prostate cancer. To our knowledge, the relationship between diabetes and tumor features and risk of recurrence among men with prostate cancer has not been examined previously. We hypothesized that men with diabetes would present with more favorable prostate cancer and experience lower risk of recurrence.

METHODS

We identified 691 men with diabetes at the time of prostate cancer diagnosis, among 6722 men diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1989 to 2002 within CaPSURE(TM), a community-based prostate cancer registry study. We compared clinical and socio-demographic variables by diabetes status, using chi2 tests, t-tests, and multinomial logistic regression. We examined recurrence rates for prostate cancer among patients with and without diabetes using Kaplan-Meier log-rank tests and Cox proportional hazard models.

RESULTS

In multivariate analyses, history of diabetes was not associated with any diagnostic clinical parameter, and treatment-specific recurrence rates for prostate cancer generally did not differ by diabetes history. Among men with low-prognostic risk or who were younger at prostate cancer diagnosis, being diabetic (versus not) was associated with an elevated risk of recurrence after radiation therapy, in multivariate analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

Contrary to data suggesting that diabetes may be modestly protective against risk of incident prostate cancer, we did not observe any evidence of an inverse association between history of diabetes and aggressiveness at diagnosis or risk of recurrence, in this population of men with prostate cancer.

An education program for parents of children with asthma: differences in attendance between smoking and nonsmoking parents

We studied smoking status in relation to parental attendance at an asthma education program for child patients of a health maintenance organization. Nonattendance rates were 24%, 42%, and 78% in nonsmoking, one-smoker, and two-or-more-smoker families, respectively, and 33% overall. Only the number of smokers (odds ratio [OR] = 3.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.8, 5.3) and perceived adverse impact of asthma on the family (OR = 0.4; 95% CI = 0.2, 0.9) were retained in a multivariate model that correctly classified 73% of families; demographic characteristics, frequency of asthma symptoms, and health care use were rejected. There was a tendency for smoking parents to deny that their child had asthma (17% among families with two or more smokers; 9% among nonsmoking families). Asthma education programs may fail to involve parents who smoke.

Prostate cancer outcomes among older men: insurance status comparisons results from CaPSURE database

With growing number of older adults in the United States and complexity of issues related to Medicare and other insurances more research is needed to evaluate an effectiveness of the different insurance types in prevention, screening and treatment of cancer. With prostate cancer being highly prevalent disease in older men, the importance of appropriate treatment and favorable outcomes is imperative. In this study we examine whether prostate cancer outcomes, such as risk category at diagnosis, treatment and survival differ in relationship to insurance status in older patients in CaPSURE. Data were abstracted from CaPSURE, a longitudinal observational database of 13 124 men with prostate cancer. Men were selected for the study if they were older than 65 years old at diagnosis, newly diagnosed between 1995 and 2005 at entry to CaPSURE with localized disease and received radical prostatectomy (RP), external beam radiation (EBRT), brachytherapy (BT), hormonal therapy or expectant management (EM). Insurance status was summarized by eight categories: Medicare only, Medicare+supplement, Medicare+HMO, Medicare+PPO, Medicare+FFS, health maintenance organization (HMO), preferred provider organization (PPO) and Veteran's Administration (VA). A total of 2983 men met the inclusion criteria. Odds ratios (OR) for the likelihood of receiving each type of therapy compared to RP by insurance status and likelihood of presenting with high-risk classification at diagnosis were derived using multinomial logistic regression, adjusting for clinical and demographic characteristics. Difference in survival between insurance groups was evaluated by Cox's multivariate regression. Multivariate analysis demonstrated a strong association between initial treatment and insurance status. Compared to Medicare patients, men in the CaPSURE database treated at HMO, PPO and VA systems were more likely to receive BT than RP (OR, 1.71-1.92) and less likely to receive this treatment if they were in Medicare+FFS and Medicare+PPO (OR, 0.18-0.38). Hormonal treatment demonstrated similar pattern, however OR did not reached statistical significance for HMO and PPO. Use of EM was much more predominant for patients in VA system (OR, 4.74; 95% CI, 1.94-11.55). Use of EBRT was significantly associated with type of insurance. Men with VA, Medicare+FFS and Medicare+PPO insurance were less likely to receive this treatment compared to RP. Survival and clinical risk at diagnosis was associated with insurance status in univariate analysis but this association diminished after adjusting for possible covariates. This study provides important information on relationship between insurance status and several outcomes in patients with prostate cancer. Even after controlling for important clinical and sociodemographic factors we found marked differences in prostate cancer treatment according to type of insurance. Future explorations of associations between health care delivery system, cancer care and outcomes are needed.