The Uptake of Active Surveillance for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer in Ontario: Results of a Population-based Study

Active surveillance (AS) has been proposed as a treatment alternative to decrease the overtreatment rates associated with prostate cancer (PCa). However, the proportion of men being managed by this approach in Canada is currently unknown. Therefore, we sought to estimate the proportion of men being managed by AS in Ontario and the factors associated with its uptake. In our population-based study using administrative databases, men with localized PCa were identified using the Ontario Cancer Registry. We then identified how these men were treated. Multi-level mixed models were performed to evaluate the factors associated with being managed by AS. Our analysis confirmed our hypothesis that the uptake of AS increased over time. It also confirmed that the decision to proceed to AS was influenced by several characteristics. The validity of these results might have been affected by some of the study’s limitations. Further studies will be required to validate our findings.M.Sc