Objective: To examine the effects of different treatments on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of men with localized prostate cancer.
Patients and methods: Between October 1997 and August 2002, 182 men diagnosed with prostate cancer (T1c to T3bN0M0) had radical prostatectomy (RP, 89) or (192)iridium high-dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT, 93) with external beam radiotherapy, and were followed for > or = 6 months. A postal survey was sent in which HRQoL was assessed using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) QoL questionnaire, and disease-specific QoL using the University of California Los Angeles Prostate Cancer Index (UCLA-PCI).
Results: Questionnaire responses were obtained from 151 of 182 patients; there was no significant difference in SF-36 scale scores between men treated with RP or HDR-BT. In the UCLA-PCI, the HDR-BT group had better urinary function (P < 0.001) and sexual function scores (P= 0.043). Men treated with RP had better bowel bother scores (P = 0.027). In patients with > or = 2 years of follow-up, urinary function (P < 0.001) and sexual bother (P = 0.029) were better for men treated with HDR-BT than for men treated with RP. Men treated with HDR-BT had significantly better urinary function (P = 0.009) and sexual bother (P = 0.013) even than 30 men treated with unilateral nerve-sparing RP.
Conclusions: In terms of HRQoL, RP and HDR-BT did not differ, but HDR-BT resulted in better urinary and sexual function than RP. When planning treatment, QoL concerns, including mental health issues associated with prostate cancer, need to be addressed with the patients, as do the potential side-effects.