Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Prostate cancer

Estimated life expectancy: integration of age and comorbidities

Nature Reviews Urology volume 13, pages 634–635 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Most guidelines recommend integration of estimated life expectancy into the routine decision-making process in prostate cancer treatment. This article underlines the use of both age and comorbidities to calculate life expectancy, which is highly dependent on the health status of the individual patient.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Gupta, M. et al. Clinical practice guidelines on prostate cancer: a critical appraisal. J. Urol. 193, 1153–1158 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Heidenreich, A. et al. Early detection of prostate cancer: European Association of Urology recommendation. Eur. Urol. 64, 347–354 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Walz, J. et al. Clinicians are poor raters of life-expectancy before radical prostatectomy or definitive radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer. BJU Int. 100, 1254–1258 (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Daskivich, T. J., Wood, L., Skarecky, D., Ahlering, T. & Freedland, S. Limitations of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for prediction of limited life expectancy in men with prostate cancer. J. Urol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2016.08.096 (2016).

  5. Daskivich, T. J. et al. Comorbidity and competing risks for mortality in men with prostate cancer. Cancer. 117, 4642–4650 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lunardi, P. et al. Current impact of age and comorbidity assessment on prostate cancer treatment choice and over/undertreatment risk. World J. Urol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00345-016-1900-9 (2016).

  7. Jespersen, C. G., Nørgaard, M., Jacobsen, J. B. & Borre, M. Patient comorbidity is associated with conservative treatment of localized prostate cancer. Scand. J. Urol. 49, 366–370 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Froehner, M. et al. A combined index to classify prognostic comorbidity in candidates for radical prostatectomy. BMC Urol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2490-14-28 (2014).

  9. O'Doherty, M. G. et al. Effect of major lifestyle risk factors, independent and jointly, on life expectancy with and without cardiovascular disease: results from the Consortium on Health and Ageing Network of Cohorts in Europe and the United States (CHANCES). Eur. J. Epidemiol. 31, 455–468 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Daskivich, T. J. et al. Questioning the 10-year life expectancy rule for high-grade prostate cancer: comparative effectiveness of aggressive versus nonaggressive treatment of high-grade disease in older men with differing comorbid disease burdens. Urology 93, 68–76 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Axel Heidenreich and David Pfister are at the Department of Urology, Uro-Oncology, Robot-Assisted and Reconstructive Urologic Surgery, University Hospital Cologne, Kerpener Straße 62, 50937 Köln, Germany.,

    Axel Heidenreich & David Pfister

Authors
  1. Axel Heidenreich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Pfister
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Axel Heidenreich.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Heidenreich, A., Pfister, D. Estimated life expectancy: integration of age and comorbidities. Nat Rev Urol 13, 634–635 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2016.203

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrurol.2016.203

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer