Complications after treatment with external-beam irradiation in early-stage prostate cancer patients: a prospective multiinstitutional outcomes study.

Abstract
PURPOSETo use data from a prospective quality-of-life study to assess differences in disease-specific and general health-related quality-of-life changes after treatment with different external-beam irradiation techniques for prostate cancer.PATIENTS AND METHODSPatients were divided into three groups based on their pretreatment field size and planning technique: whole pelvis, small field, or conformal. Measures of bowel, urinary, and sexual function and of global health-related quality-of-life parameters (from the Health Survey Short Form [SF-36] and the Profile of Mood States [POMS]) were obtained from self-report questionnaires completed before initiation of therapy and at 3 and 12 months after therapy.RESULTSIrritative gastrointestinal and genitourinary side effects were frequent 3 months after treatment, but were substantially improved at 12 months. Sexual dysfunction increased steadily over the study period. The POMS and the SF-36 did not demonstrate significant changes over time. Despite small patien...

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: