Urban–rural prostate cancer disparities in a regional state of Australia

Abstract

Men living in regional and remote areas experience disparities in prostate cancer (PrCa) diagnosis, clinical characteristics and treatment modalities. We sought to determine whether such disparities exist in PrCa patients from Tasmania; a regional state of Australia with the second-highest rate of diagnosis and where over a third of residents live in outer regional and remote areas. Our study included clinicopathological data from 1526 patients enrolled in the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Registry-Tasmania. Regression analyses were undertaken to determine whether demographic, clinical and treatment variables differed between inner regional and outer regional/remote patients. Men from outer regional/remote areas were significantly more likely to reside in lower socio-economic areas, be diagnosed at a later age and with more clinically aggressive features. However, in contrast to previous studies, there were no overall differences in diagnostic or treatment method, although men from outer regional/remote areas took longer to commence active treatment and travelled further to do so. This study is the first to investigate PrCa disparities in a wholly regional Australian state and highlights the need to develop systematic interventions at the patient and healthcare level to improve outcomes in outer regional and remote populations in Australia and across the globe.

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