The impact of socioeconomic status on the survival of men with early-onset prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is generally considered a disease of older men; however, about 10% of new diagnoses in the US occur in men ≤ 55 years old. Socioeconomic status (SES) has been shown to influence survival in patients with PCa; however, the impact of SES on men with early-onset PCa remains undescribed. Using the National Cancer Database, we identified adult men ≤ 55 years of age with a diagnosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma between 2004-2018. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize differences among different SES groups. Kaplan-Meier (KM) and Cox regression analyses were used to assess the effect of SES on overall survival (OS). A total of 112,563 young patients with PCa with a median follow-up of 79.0 months were identified. Compared to high SES patients, low SES patients were more likely to be African American (42.4% vs. 8.6%; P<0.001), Hispanic (9.5% vs. 2.7%; P<0.001), and uninsured (5.2% vs. 1.1%; P<0.001); they were also more likely to live in a rural area (3.2% vs. 0.1%; P<0.001) and have stage IV disease (5.5% vs. 3.1%; P<0.001). KM analysis showed that a decreasing SES was directly associated with lower rates of OS (log-rank test P<0.001). On multivariable analysis, SES was found to have a negative effect on OS (low SES vs. high SES; hazard ratio [HR] 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.41-1.68; P<0.001). In patients with early-onset PCa, SES was associated with lower OS. SES may be considered when implementing programs to improve the management of patients with early-onset PCa.