Patient Reported Urinary Incontinence and Sexual Impotency Following Multimodality Radical Therapy for Prostate Cancer: An Untold Story of Compound Toxicity?

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate urinary continence and sexual potency following radical prostatectomy and adjuvant radiotherapy. Materials/Methods: Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) surveys of patients with localized prostate cancer treated with surgery followed by adjuvant/salvage pelvic radiotherapy (S+RT) were analyzed. A control cohort was primary radiotherapy (RT). Results: Surveys at least 1 year after treatment were available for 130 S+RT and 374 RT patients. For S+RT vs. RT, the mean urinary incontinence score was 68 [6.25 -100] versus 86.4 [CI-95 39.5-100] (p<0.001), confirming 6.5 points of clinically significant difference. The adjusted odds ratio for superior urinary function was 2.67 (1.7-4.1, p<0.001) for primary radiotherapy. The odds ratio of having both poor urinary and sexual performance was 0.29 in RT arm (0.14-0.58, p<0.001) when adjusted to age and ADT use, group risk stratification, co morbidities and smoking status. Conclusion: In this cross sectional study, Surgery with adjuvant/salvage RT was associated with significantly worse patient reported urinary continence outcomes at 1-year post treatment, lower odds of achieving perfect urinary continence and a threefold risk of reverse ‘bifecta’ with inferior urinary continence and sexual performance. Longitudinal studies of evolving toxicity are required to validate these findings.