Quality of life after high-dose-rate brachytherapy monotherapy for prostate cancer

There is little information in the literature on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) changes due to high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy monotherapy for prostate cancer.

We conducted a prospective study of HRQOL changes due to HDR brachytherapy monotherapy for low risk or favorable intermediate risk prostate cancer. Sixty-four of 84 (76 %) patients who were treated between February 2011 and April 2013 completed 50 questions comprising the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) before treatment and 6 and/or 12 months after treatment.

Six months after treatment, there was a significant decrease (p <0.05) in EPIC urinary, bowel, and sexual scores, including urinary overall, urinary function, urinary bother, urinary irritative, bowel overall, bowel bother, sexual overall, and sexual bother scores. By one year after treatment, EPIC urinary, bowel, and sexual scores had increased and only the bowel overall and bowel bother scores remained significantly below baseline values.

HDR brachytherapy monotherapy is well-tolerated in patients with low and favorable intermediate risk prostate cancer. EPIC urinary and sexual domain scores returned to close to baseline 12 months after HDR brachytherapy.