Suicide and accidental deaths among patients with non‐metastatic prostate cancer

Abstract

ObjectiveTo determine if American men with prostate cancer are at increased risk of suicide/accidental death compared with other cancers and if the receipt of definitive treatment alters this association, as patients with cancer are at increased risk of suicide and evidence suggests a relationship between suicides and deaths due to accidents and externally caused injuries. Patients and MethodsDemographic, socio-economic and tumour characteristics of men with prostate cancer and men with other solid malignancies were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database . Poisson regression models were fitted to compare the incidence of suicidal and accidental deaths in prostate cancer vs other solid cancers. Multivariate Cox regression was used to determine if receipt of definitive primary treatment impacted the risk of suicide or accidental death in men with localised/regional prostate cancer. ResultsRisk of suicidal and accidental death was significantly lower in men with prostate cancer (1 165 24-5.51, respectively, 0-3 months after diagnosis). Men with non-metastatic prostate cancer who were White, uninsured, or recommended but did not receive treatment (hazard ratio vs treated 1.44, 95% CI 1.20-1.72, and 1.44, 95% CI 1.30-1.59, both P < 0.001) were at increased risk of suicidal and accidental mortality, respectively. Absence of data about previous co-morbidities and drug addictions in the SEER dataset was an important limitation. ConclusionsRelative to other cancers, men with prostate cancer were at increased risk of suicide and accidental deaths within the first year of diagnosis and when definitive treatment was recommended but not received, suggesting the need for close monitoring and coordination with mental health professionals in at-risk men with potentially curable disease.

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Prostate cancer‐specific anxiety and the resulting health‐related quality of life in couples

“…Further, the suicide rate of newly diagnosed people with cancer is 2.47 times higher than that of the general population (Lin et al., ). In the first year after prostate cancer is diagnosed (particularly between 0 and 3 months), the suicide rate of people with prostate cancer is considerably higher than that of other people with other cancers (adjusted relative risk = 2.74–3.98; Dalela et al., ). The risk factors for suicide include being newly diagnosed (in 6 months) with prostate cancer (Carlsson et al., ) and having anxiety and depression (Anguiano, Mayer, Piven, & Rosenstein, ; Spoletini et al., ).…”

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