Early quality of life assessment in men treated with permanent source interstitial brachytherapy for clinically localized prostate cancer.

PURPOSE: We prospectively assessed quality of life changes with time using validated instruments in men with clinically localized prostate cancer treated with permanent source interstitial brachytherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 46 men consecutively treated with permanent source interstitial brachytherapy between September 1997 and June 1998 completed quality of life (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Prostate [FACT-P]) and urinary symptom (International Prostate Symptom Score [I-PSS]) questionnaires before (T0), and 1 (T1) and 3 (T3) months after treatment. All participants were treated with 125iodine alone. Repeated measures analyses of variance were conducted on all quality of life and urinary outcome measures for 44 patients with data at all 3 time points. RESULTS: Median patient age was 68 years (range 51 to 80). All men had clinical T1c to T2b prostate cancer, Gleason score was 6 or less in 36 (78%) and median pretreatment prostate specific antigen was 7 ng./ml. (range 1.1 to 20.6). Mean score (and standard deviation) at T0, T1 and T3 for each questionnaire was FACT-P 138.9 (14.4), 128.6 (19.4) and 136.7 (17.4), TO versus T1 p = 0.0005 and T0 versus T3 p = 0.6612, and I-PSS 8.3 (5.4), 19.7 (9.0) and 15.7 (7.2), T0 versus T1 p = 0.0001 and T0 versus T3 p = 0.0001. For the global test across time statistically significant differences were observed for the cumulative scores of FACT-P, I-PSS, physical well-being and prostate cancer subscales of the FACT-P and the Trial Outcome Index. By 3 months all quality of life measures had returned to baseline. Urinary symptoms as measured by I-PSS persisted for at least 3 months. CONCLUSIONS: Clinically meaningful decreases in quality of life, as measured by the FACT-P instrument, were evident within weeks after permanent source interstitial brachytherapy. However, by 3 months FACT-P scores returned to near baseline levels. A validated instrument designed to measure urinary symptoms (I-PSS) demonstrated that moderate to severe urinary symptoms persisted for at least 3 months following permanent source interstitial brachytherapy. An instrument specifically designed to measure urinary symptoms can provide additional clinical information when combined with FACT-P.

Duke Scholars

Author W. Robert Lee Radiation Oncology