Prostate cancer in Spain: A retrospective database analysis of hospital incidence and the direct medical costs.

INTRODUCTION: The goal of this study is to determine the medical costs, comorbidity profile, and health care resources use of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer who have been treated in Spanish hospitals.

METHODS: The admission records of the patients diagnosed with prostate cancer used in the study were registered between January 2016 and December 2020. These records have been collected from a Spanish hospital discharge database and have been evaluated in a retrospective multicenter analysis.

RESULTS: 8218 patients from the database met the criteria and were thus analyzed. The median aged of the diagnosed patients was 71.68 years. The median Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score was 4, and the updated median CCI was 3. Hypertension was diagnosed in the 49.76% of the individuals, 37.03% had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 34.51% had hyperlipidaemia. The mortality rate was 9.30%. The most common medical procedure was prostate resection with percutaneous endoscopic approach (31.18%). The mean annual cost per admission was 5212.98€ €.

CONCLUSIONS: Technologies, such as the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for screening has helped in the diagnosis in the past decades, enhancing a decrease in the mortality rate of the patients throughout the years.