[QOL assessment in the treatment of prostate cancer]

It has been stressed that evaluation of QOL is an essential part of a clinical trial. We started a prospective randomized trial for advanced prostate cancer comparing various types of endocrine therapies which included QOL study in 1992. The QOL was evaluated before, one month after, three months after, and 12 months after the start of therapy. An EO-RTC questionnaire system was translated into Japanese and its reproducibility was assessed before the study. Eighty-four patients who were registered to the trial replied before the start of therapy. Endocrine therapies showed good effects on patients' QOL, especially in the domains of disease-related symptoms, physical feelings, mental distress and social life, which were improved significantly three months after the start of therapy. Sex life was seen to deteriorate from the therapies. In conclusion, the results of our QOL study reflected well the effects of endocrine therapy, and are expected to provide useful information for evaluation of the different effects of each treatment group.