Survivorship Programs Improve Quality of Life, Satisfaction in Prostate Cancer

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Men with prostate cancer managed in a survivorship program report higher quality of life (QOL) and satisfaction than those who were managed by routine care, according to an article published online in Cancer.

In this study, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) such as QOL were integrated into a prostate cancer survivorship clinic and evaluated at 6 and 12 months. 

Participants included 235 men being surgically treated for prostate cancer using routine follow-up care and 102 men managed in the survivorship clinic with the integrated point-of-care QOL reporting after radical prostatectomy. 

Results showed that baseline QOL was comparable, but men in the survivorship groups had higher scores at 6 and 12 months than those following the routine care.  For example, male patients in the survivorship clinic reported higher sexual function than those in routine care (52.2 vs 33.6 at 1 year, P<0.05).

The study suggests that disease-specific survivorship clinics with integrated QOL reporting may generate better results than clinics with routine care following cancer therapy.