title: Factors associated with overall survival prostate cancer in Florida: a multilevel analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate individual and contextual factors contributing to overall prostate cancer (PCa) survival in Florida.
  
  
  METHODS
  A random sample of 6,457 PCa cases diagnosed between 10/1/2001 and 12/31/2007 was extracted from Florida Cancer Data System. Comorbidity was computed following Elixhauser Index. Survival probability curve was generated using Kaplan-Meier method. The Wei, Lin, and Weissfel model was used for the multivariate analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Older age at diagnosis was associated with shorter time to death. Current smokers had a higher hazard rate than non-current smokers. Higher hazard of overall mortality was associated with being diagnosed with advanced stage compared with localized stage and having poorly-differentiated tumor compared with well-moderately differentiated tumor. No definitive treatment, radiation alone, and hormone alone were significantly associated with elevated hazard rate compared with surgery. Fifteen comorbidities were significantly associated with shorter time-to-death.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Effective control of comorbidity in PCa patients should help improve life expectancy and lead to prolonged survival.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Adunlin
authors.forename: Askal Ayalew
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Goovaerts
authors.forename: Clement K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Gwede
authors.forename: Youjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005431:Florida / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D016019:Survival Analysis