Prostate Cancer in Firemen: Early Diagnosis Because of Increased Diagnostic Pressure?

Early Detection of Prostate Cancer in Firefighters - a Register-based Study of Prognostic Factors and Survival

Firefighters, police, military personnel and pilots are all shown to have a higher incidence of prostate cancer than the general population. A possible explanation for this is that these four groups of employees need regular mandatory health-checkups. If these checkups increase the chances of having a PSA or DRE performed one could expect the workers in question to have a higher probability than the general population of being diagnosed with prostate cancer. If this is the case the four groups should have cancers that are lower grade and have better survival. The investigators wish to examine this by comparing the four groups with a control group made up of all other workers with regards to prognostic factors at the time of diagnosis and survival rates. This will be done by extracting data from the Cancer Registry of Norway, coupled with employment data from Statistics Norway. This study is also a part of a project on cancer in firefighters. If the prostate cancers in firefighters differ significantly from the other three specified groups, this could point to an exposure specific for firefighters, e.g. fire smoke, as an etiologic factor.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Prostate Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: None, observational study

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 137536

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Norway
  • Oslo, Norway, 0304
    • Cancer Registry of Norway

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

All men registered in the Cancer Registry of Norway with prostate cancer. Analysis of firefighters, pilots, police, military personnel and a matched group of other workers.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All cases of prostate cancer as registered by the Cancer Registry of Norway

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

5

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Firefighters	Other: None, observational study; None, observational study
Pilots	Other: None, observational study; None, observational study
Police	Other: None, observational study; None, observational study
Military personnel	Other: None, observational study; None, observational study
Controls; Control group matched for geographic location (county), and year of diagnosis. Consisting of all other workers than the four specified groups.	Other: None, observational study; None, observational study

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Cause-specific mortality rate for prostate cancer	From January 1st 1960 until December 31st 2018

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
TNM staging		January 1st 1960 until December 31st 2018
Gleason score	Score based on microscopic appearance of prostate cancer tissue. Sum of two scores, each ranging from 1-5 (only whole numbers), meaning the final score ranges from 2-10. A higher score is associated with a more aggressive/less differentiated tumor. It is normal to group scores 2-6 together in >7. It is also normal to differentiate between 7 (4+3) (worse), and 7 (3+4) (better).	January 1st 1960 until December 31st 2018
PSA at time of diagnosis		January 1st 1960 until December 31st 2018
Functional status at time of diagnosis (WHO classification)		January 1st 1960 until December 31st 2018

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Oslo University Hospital
• Collaborators: Norwegian Cancer Society; Extrastiftelsen; Cancer Registry of Norway; Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority; Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions; Fagforbundet; Gjensidige Foundation; Norwegian Firefighters Fight Cancer; The National Institute of Occupational Health

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 1, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 2, 2020
• Study Completion (Actual): February 2, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 28, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 28, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): March 29, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 1, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 24, 2021
• Last Verified: February 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms; Urogenital Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Site; Genital Neoplasms, Male; Prostatic Diseases; Prostatic Neoplasms
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2019/542

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No