High Norwegian prostate cancer mortality: evidence of over-reporting.

Prostate cancer mortality statistics in Norway are relatively accurate for patients aged <75 years at death. However, overall accuracy of cause of death assignment is significantly reduced by misattribution among older patients (> 75 years), who represent the large majority of prostate cancer deaths. Over-reporting of prostate cancer deaths among elderly people may not be an exclusively Norwegian phenomenon and may affect prostate cancer mortality statistics in other countries.