Prostate-specific symptoms of prostate cancer in a German general population

Abstract

Predominant symptoms in prostate cancer patients are erectile dysfunctions and urinary problems. As decreases of these functions can be attributed to disease and treatment but also to age-related decreases, we conducted a study on a German reference population measuring general quality of life (QoL) as well as prostate-specific symptoms. In cooperation with a German health insurance company, 3000 questionnaires were mailed to a randomly selected sample of men aged 45-75 years. Questionnaires used were the EORTC QLQ-C30 and a prostate-specific module (PSM). One thousand one hundred and fifty questionnaires were returned (response rate: 37.6%). QoL data from this reference population were compared to QoL data from a historical cohort study of prostate cancer patients following either prostatectomy or radiotherapy. In terms of general QoL, the reference population showed similar QoL scores as prostatectomy patients, but better scores than radiotherapy patients. On the PSM, the reference sample showed better overall QoL, but a surprisingly high extent of erectile dysfunction, urinary problems and psychic strain. Taking into account the sensitive topic of this study (sexuality and urinary problems), the response rate is more than satisfying. Older men in our randomly selected, population-based sample do not show perfect erectile and urinary function. These findings should be considered when interpreting QoL data of prostate cancer patients.

Quantitative assessment of quality of life in New Zealand prostate cancer survivors: the effect of androgen deprivation therapy

“…As with other survey based studies, the issue of how representative this sample of prostate cancer survivors are of the population is always some concern. However, the responses rates of ~40% in the current study were comparable to other studies in this area [13,34]. Further, as a cross-sectional comparison, it is not possible to determine causation, so that these differences in QOL may have been influenced by differences in these groups' perceptions of their QOL prior to the cancer diagnosis and/or treatment.…”

“…The first is that the literature comprises studies that have compared prostate cancer survivors using ADT to prostate cancer survivors undergoing radiation therapy and radical prostatectomy [9] or active surveillance [9][10][11][12]. As ADT, radiation therapy and radical prostatectomy all have known side-effects and symptoms [7,13], a lack of many significant differences in the QOL of men using these therapies is of little surprise. Secondly, all of these studies were conducted in North America or Europe, with the North America studies involving data from 1994 and 1995 [9,10].…”

Definitive radiotherapy with adjuvant long-term antiandrogen treatment for locally advanced prostate cancer: health-related quality of life and hormonal changes

“…Second, the study did not cover those who were withdrawn from AA treatment before 5 years. Furthermore, the response rates for NORM were only B35%, similar to other populationbased surveys addressing sexual function (1). Hence, possible selection bias with loss of representativity could be operating in both patients and NORM.…”

Health-Related Quality of Life of Prostate Cancer Patients Compared to the General German Population: Age-Specific Results

“…Concerning the influence of age on HRQOL, there are contradictory results in the literature relating to comparisons between younger and older patients [6,7] . However, there is a consensus to take age effects into consideration [8,9] .…”

“…There are only few studies that examine the QOL of cancer patients compared to the general population [8] . In addition, there are several other studies that found no differences in the global HRQOL between PCPs and agematched persons without cancer [10] .…”