Health related quality of life in patients treated with multimodal therapy for prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: Patients with prostate cancer and high risk disease characteristics may benefit from multimodal therapy. However, the effects of multimodal therapy on health related quality of life have not been comprehensively described. We further characterized health related quality of life in patients treated with multimodal therapy.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patient data were obtained from the CaPSURE database, a national disease registry of men with prostate cancer. Included patients received active primary therapy (ie surgery or various forms of radiation) for prostate cancer with or without adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapy, and had complete clinical data, including health related quality of life assessments at baseline and through 2 years after treatment. The association between health related quality of life outcomes and different primary therapies with and without adjuvant or neoadjuvant therapy over time was analyzed using a repeated measures mixed model for each primary therapy.
RESULTS: A total of 2,204 men met the study criteria. As primary therapy 1,427 patients received radical prostatectomy, 267 received external beam radiation therapy and 510 received brachytherapy. When androgen deprivation therapy was included with radical prostatectomy, brachytherapy or external beam radiation therapy, there was a transient loss of sexual function that improved within 9 months postoperatively. When external beam radiation therapy was given with brachytherapy there was continuous worsening of urinary function and bother through 21 months.
CONCLUSIONS: Multimodal therapy may lead to declines in health related quality of life especially in the domains of urinary function, urinary bother and sexual function. These effects must be considered and patients must be counseled appropriately before initiation of multimodal therapy.