Background:
Approximately 189,000 men are diagnosed with prostate carcinoma each year and more than 1 million are living with the disease. good prognoses and undesirable sequelae accompany each of several available primary and adjuvant treatment options. the current study explored the effects of primary three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy with or without neoadjuvant hormonal therapy on urinary, bowel, and sexual symptoms and health-related quality of life (hrqol).
Methods:
A prospective, repeated-measures design study included 100 patients. data from the medical outcomes study short form health survey (a measure of general hrqol) and a 12-item symptom questionnaire were collected before the start of radiotherapy, approximately 1-3 months after completion of treatment, and again approximately 5-10 months after completion of treatment for follow-up.
Results:
Patients reported few urinary symptoms after treatment. bowel frequency and urgency were reported more frequently posttreatment and at follow-up. erectile difficulties, which were common pretreatment, were reported with increased frequency posttreatment and at follow-up. general hrqol scores were higher than age-related general population norms for men at all three data collection times, but there were significant losses posttreatment for patients' physical functioning and vitality. at the 5-10-month follow-up, physical functioning remained lower but vitality scores regained some of the losses. a more extended follow-up is needed. neoadjuvant therapy, which was received before the pretreatment data collection, had a deleterious effect on erectile functioning but no interactive effects with the radiotherapy on symptoms or hrqol.
Conclusions:
Although patients with a diagnosis of prostate carcinoma experienced increased bowel and sexual dysfunction and decreased vitality after radiotherapy, their hrqol scores remained at or above age-related general population norms.