Urinary and bowel symptoms in men with and without prostate cancer: results from an observational study in the Stockholm area.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the prevalence of urinary and bowel symptoms in population-based groups of men with and without prostate cancer.
METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire, assessing 5 urinary and 3 bowel symptoms, was sent to the 431 men diagnosed as having prostate cancer in the Stockholm area in 1992 who were still alive in October 1993 and to 435 randomly selected control subjects with an age distribution matching men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer in the same area. The results were evaluated as ratios of proportions.
RESULTS: Among the prostate cancer patients, all urinary and bowel symptoms assessed were more common and the risk of having the various symptoms was 1.3-4.5 times that of the controls. The risks of having leakage of urine after radical prostatectomy and bowel urgency after external beam radiation therapy were fourfold when compared with the control group. We noted an increased risk ratio of proportions of leakage of faeces after radical prostatectomy and this risk was significantly increased when men with any of 11 specified diseases were excluded from the analysis to reduce confounding.
CONCLUSIONS: Prostate cancer and its treatment affects urinary and bowel functions. The increased risk of having leakage of faeces after radical prostatectomy may be a chance phenomenon due to few patients subjected to surgery, but warrants further investigation.