Background and purpose: Quality of life (QoL) issues are a vital concern for the majority of patients seeking therapeutic intervention once they are found to have prostate cancer. A prospective longitudinal comparison using validated QoL instruments is a valuable technique to evaluate outcome differences. We evaluated the short-term QoL changes from baseline of five surgical approaches for localized prostate carcinoma delivered at a single institution.
Patients and methods: A prospective longitudinal survey of 719 patients with newly diagnosed prostate cancer was initiated in 2001. The surgical procedures performed during this time period were open radical prostatectomy (ORP), laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (LRP), da Vinci robotic prostatectomy (dVP), (103)Pd brachytherapy ((103)Pd), and prostate cryoablation (PCryo). An Institutional Review Board-approved questionnaire comprised of validated QoL instruments (UCLA Prostate Cancer Index and American Urological Association Symptom Index [SI]) was mailed to enrolled patients prior to their selected surgery and again at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months after therapy. A percent of baseline score calculation including data from all five treatment cohorts for follow-up months 1, 3, and 6 was compared within groups. Group I consisted of patients undergoing ORP, LRP, or dVP. Group II consisted of patients undergoing (103)Pd or PCryo.
Results: Between January 2000 and April 2005, 498 patients (69%) were enrolled who completed the baseline questionnaire and at least one follow-up survey at 1, 3, or 6 months. The mean patient age at ORP, LRP, dVP, (103)Pd, and PCryo was 59, 61, 60, 67, and 72 years, respectively. Within Group I, early recovery of sexual function (at 3 months) appeared to occur sooner after dVP (35% return to baseline [RTB]) than ORP (24% RTB) and LRP (21% RTB) (P = 0.03). No other significant differences were noted, and trends toward improvement were seen in all groups. Within Group II, PCryo (18% RTB) had a more negative impact on sexual function at 3 months than did 103Pd (63% RTB) (P = 0.007), although a significant difference in baseline sexual function was also noted (P = 0.001). Early urinary function (at 1 month) was better after (103)Pd (82% RTB) than PCryo (72%) (P = 0.05), but this difference was lost at 6 months. In addition, the irritative and obstructive symptoms evaluated by the AUA SI were significantly worse (P = 0.003) at 3 months after (103)Pd than after PCryo.
Conclusions: Different surgical approaches for the treatment of localized prostate cancer affect the shortterm QoL results in different ways. Urinary, sexual, and bowel function and bother are affected to a similar degree by ORP, LRP, and dVP. In an older population, the tissue destruction resulting from PCryo appears to relieve obstructive and irritative urinary symptoms but at the sacrifice of sexual function compared with (103)Pd.