This study used the survivorship (LIVESTRONG) care plan tool to identify patient-reported toxicities that occurred following treatment for prostate cancer. All patients had undergone treatments, which were considered to have similar oncological endpoints. The tool asked patients questions with regard to the treatment that they had received and the possible gastrointestinal, genitourinary and sexual side-effects that they may have experienced. From this database 127 patients were identified as having completed the questionnaire. The median age of this group being 60 (25-74) and the median time of follow-up was four years (1-15 years). The patients were then divided into three groups, dependent upon their primary treatment: 1) surgery (35%), 2) radiation (48%), 3) radiation and surgery (17%). Hormones were given to 39% of the patient group. Half of the surgery group developed urinary incontinence compared to 15% of the radiation group (p<0.001). Erectile dysfunction was even higher, 86%, in the surgery group compared to 61% of the radiation group (p=0.02). The survivorship programme had previously not been offered to the majority of men (84%). There is a bias in this study that mainly well-educated Caucasian men responded which may account for the higher than average toxicities but this study highlights the fact that all treatments for prostate cancer have a relatively high morbidity associated with them. It therefore stresses the importance of developing individual survivorship plans to help patients to deal with these long-term sequelae.
Patient-reported outcomes after prostate cancer treatment
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