gms | German Medical Science

27th German Cancer Congress Berlin 2006

German Cancer Society (Frankfurt/M.)

22. - 26.03.2006, Berlin

Prostate cancer specific symptoms in a German reference population

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author presenting/speaker Beate Bestmann - Referenzzentrum Lebensqualität in der Onkologie, UK-SH Campus Kiel, Deutschland
  • Christian Loetters - Klinik und Poliklinik für Urologie und Kinderurologie, Universitätsklinikum Gießen
  • Wolfgang Weidner - Klinik und Poliklinik für Urologie und Kinderurologie, Universitätsklinikum Gießen
  • Thomas Küchler - Referenzzentrum Lebensqualität in der Onkologie, UK-SH Campus Kiel
  • Volker Rohde - Klinik und Poliklinik für Urologie und Kinderurologie, Universitätsklinikum Gießen

27. Deutscher Krebskongress. Berlin, 22.-26.03.2006. Düsseldorf, Köln: German Medical Science; 2006. DocPE323

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.egms.de/en/meetings/dkk2006/06dkk433.shtml

Published: March 20, 2006

© 2006 Bestmann et al.
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Outline

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Objective: Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in Europe and the USA. Predominant symptoms in these patients are erectile dysfunctions and urinary problems. Since 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 as well general QoL as prostate specific symptoms. The data from this study can be used as control group in studies with older men treated for prostate cancer.

Material and Methods: In cooperation with a German health insurance company (Sancura BKK) 3.000 questionnaires were mailed to a randomly selected sample of men aged 45-75 years. General and disease targeted health related quality of life was measured using the EORTC QLQ-C30, a prostate specific newly validated prostate specific module, the EQ-5D (formerly EUROQOL) and the Patient Oriented Prostate Utility Score (PORPUS). 1129 questionnaires were returned to our center, i.e. the response rate was 37.6%. We compared QoL data from this new reference population to QoL data from a historical cohort study of 950 patients following prostatectomy or radio therapy, in which the same set of questionnaires was used. Due to large sample size only descriptive comparisons were performed.

Results: Mean age was 56.8 years (standard deviation 7.7). In terms of general quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30), the reference population showed similar QoL scores as prostatectomy patients but better scores than radio therapy patients. Only on the scale “social functioning” the “healthy” sample showed significant (> 10 points) better QoL than prostatectomy or radio therapy patients. On the prostate specific module, the reference sample showed better QoL but a surprisingly high extend of erectile dysfunction, urinary problems and psychic strain. More than one third of the patients (39.0%) from the reference population reported some degree of urinary problems. 47.8% reported a decrease of sexual interest, 63.2% a decrease of sexual activity.

Conclusions: Taking into account the sensitive topic of this study (sexuality and urinary problems), a response rate of 37.6% 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 kept in mind when interpreting QoL data of prostate cancer patients.