Prevalence and Demographic Characteristics of Prostate Cancer Patients in Colombia: data from the National Health Registry from 2015 to 2019

Abstract Background and Objective Prostate cancer is a multifactorial disease and is among the top five causes of death in men worldwide. The Colombian Ministry of Health has adopted the Integrated Information System on Social Protection (Sistema Integrado de Información de la Protección Social, SISPRO, by its Spanish acronym) registry to collect comprehensive information from the Colombian health system. The system provides close to universal coverage (around 95%). We aimed to establish the prevalence of prostate cancer in Colombia and to describe its demographics, based on data provided by SISPRO, openly available for scientific analysis. Methods Using the SISPRO data from 2015 through 2019, we analyzed the prevalence and demographic characteristics of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. Results We identified a total of 43,862 patients with prostate cancer in the 5-year period and estimated a prevalence of 4.54 cases per 1,000 habitants, using as denominator males over 35 years old. We calculated a prevalence of early-onset prostate cancer (i.e., 35–54 years) of 0.14 per 1,000 habitants (791 cases in 5 years). The highest prevalence was observed in patients > 80 years (33.45 per 1,000 habitants). The departments with the highest prevalence were Bogotá, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, and Boyacá, and the region with the lowest prevalence was Amazonas. Conclusion We describe the prevalence and demographics of prostate cancer in Colombia using the national healthcare system database. We observed that the prevalence has been increasing over time, and the distribution is variable according to regions, which may be related to racial or environmental causes, or access to the urologist. These factors should be addressed in further studies.