Patient-reported outcomes after prostate cancer treatment

Objective: Our aim was to understand patient-reported toxicities resulting from treatment of prostate cancer using various different modalities that have similar oncological endpoints. Methods and materials: An Internet-based survivorship care plan tool was used to collect patient-reported toxicity data for men who had undergone prostate cancer treatment. Results: A total of 127 users of the survivorship care plan tool reported to have been treated for prostate cancer. The median age of the patients at diagnosis in this group was 60 years (range = 25-74 years) and median time since diagnosis was 4 years (range 1-15 years); 61 (48%) received radiation as primary treatment, 44 (35%) received surgery as primary treatment and 22 (17%) received both surgery and radiation (adjuvant or salvage). Hormonal treatment was given to 50 (39%) patients. Some 15% (7/48) in the radiation group versus 50% (21/42) in the surgery group (p < 0.001) developed urinary incontinence; 61% (33/54) in the radiation group and 86% (37/43) in the surgery group (p = 0.02) reported having erectile dysfunction since treatment. Most users (84%) had not been offered a survivorship care plan previously. Conclusion: Men with prostate cancer experience significant urinary and sexual sequelae from treatment regardless of the modality used. Patients treated with surgery reported more urinary and sexual side effects than those treated with radiation. The majority of these men are not offered a survivorship care plan to deal with these long-term effects. Survivorship planning tools to assess such side effects and design long-term individualized plans are essential for all prostate cancer patients.