Introduction: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among males in Australia and the ACT, accounting for 28.1% of all newly diagnosed cases.
Objectives: To evaluate patient-reported outcomes 12 months after diagnosis or treatment among individuals enrolled in the PCOR-ACT between 2015 and 2021.
Methods: We collected patient-reported outcomes measure (PROMs) data assessing quality-of-life 12 months after curative-intent treatment (for participants who received surgery, radiotherapy, brachytherapy, or gland ablation) or 12 months after diagnosis (for participants on active surveillance or watchful waiting, or other therapies). We used the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite-26 survey to examine outcomes in three domains (urinary, bowel and sexual).
Results: A total of 2,025 individuals were eligible for 12-month follow-up and of these, 1,489 (74%) completed the PROMs. One-quarter of all PROMs were completed by men in the 65-69 year age-group. Common clinical management approaches of individuals who completed PROMs were prostatectomy (53%), active surveillance/watchful waiting (18%), combined radiation therapy and androgen-deprivation therapy (14%), androgen-deprivation therapy (7%), radiation therapy (6%) and others (2%). Moderate/big urinary bother was reported by 12% of participants and of these, almost half had received a prostatectomy (47%). About 5% of participants reported moderate/big bowel bother and of these, one-third were treated with combined radiation therapy and androgen-deprivation therapy. Moderate/big sexual bother was reported in 32% of participants and of these, two-thirds had received a prostatectomy. Overall, two out of five participants reported moderate/big bother in at least one of the domains.
Conclusion: Of the three domains, sexual function appears to be most adversely affected in PCOR-ACT participants, and this was more common among those who had prostatectomy.