Search

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to study the evolution of quality of life (QoL) in the first 5 years following Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for prostate cancer (PCa) and to determine possible associations with clinical/treatment data., Material and Methods: Patients were enrolled in a prospective multicentre observational trial in 2010-2014 and treated with conventional (74-80 Gy, 1.8-2 Gy/fr) or moderately hypofractionated IMRT (65-75.2 Gy, 2.2-2.7 Gy/fr). QoL was evaluated by means of EORTC QLQ-C30 at baseline, at radiation therapy (RT) end, and every 6 months up to 5 years after IMRT end. Fourteen QoL dimensions were investigated separately. The longitudinal evaluation of QoL was analysed by means of Analysis of variances (ANOVA) for multiple measures., Results: A total of 391 patients with complete sets of questionnaires across 5 years were available. The longitudinal analysis showed a trend toward the significant worsening of QoL at RT end for global health, physical and role functioning, fatigue, appetite loss, diarrhoea, and pain. QoL worsening was recovered within 6 months from RT end, with the only exception being physical functioning. Based on ANOVA, the most impaired time point was RT end. QoL dimension analysis at this time indicated that acute Grade ≥ 2 gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity significantly impacted global health, physical and role functioning, fatigue, appetite loss, diarrhoea, and pain. Acute Grade ≥ 2 genitourinary (GU) toxicity resulted in lower role functioning and higher pain. Prophylactic lymph-nodal irradiation (WPRT) resulted in significantly lower QoL for global health, fatigue, appetite loss, and diarrhoea; lower pain with the use of neoadjuvant/concomitant hormonal therapy; and lower fatigue with the use of an anti-androgen., Conclusions: In this prospective, longitudinal, observational study, high radiation IMRT doses delivered for PCa led to a temporary worsening of QoL, which tended to be completely resolved at six months. Such transient worsening was mostly associated with acute GI/GU toxicity, WPRT, and higher prescription doses.

Purpose: To evaluate the persistence of symptoms after radiotherapy (RT) for localised prostate cancer (PCa) and the association with quality of life (QOL)., Materials and Methods: Prospective patient-reported outcome (PRO) from a multi-institutional study on PCa treated with radical RT (2010-2014) was analysed. Data was collected at baseline (BL) and follow-ups (FUPs) up to 5 years. Patients with BL and ≥3 late FUPs (≥6 months) were analysed. PRO was scored by means of the IPSS and ICIQ-SF (urinary), LENT-SOMA (gastrointestinal [GI]), and EORTC-C30 (pain, insomnia, fatigue, and QOL) questionnaires. Symptoms were defined 'persistent' if the median score over FUPs was ≥3 (urinary) or ≥2 (GI, pain, insomnia, and fatigue), and worse than BL. Different thresholds were chosen to have enough events for each symptom. QOL was linearly transformed on a continuous scale (0-100). Linear-mixed models were used to identify significant differences between groups with and without persistent symptoms including age, smoking status, previous abdominal surgery, and diabetes as confounders. Mean QOL differences between groups were evaluated longitudinally over FUPs., Results: The analysis included 293 patients. Persistent urinary symptoms ranged from 2% (straining) to 12% (weak stream, and nocturia). Gastrointestinal symptoms ranged from 7% (rectal pain, and incontinence) to 30% (urgency). Proportions of pain, insomnia, and fatigue were 6, 13, and 18%. Significant QOL differences of small-to-medium clinical relevance were found for urinary incontinence, frequency, urgency, and nocturia. Among GI symptoms, rectal pain and incontinence showed small-to-medium differences. Fatigue was associated with the largest differences., Conclusions: The analysis showed that symptoms after RT for PCa occur with different persistence and their association with QOL varies in magnitude. A number of persistent urinary and GI symptoms showed differences in a comparable range. Urinary incontinence and frequency, rectal pain, and faecal incontinence more often had significant associations. Fatigue was also prevalent and associated with largely deteriorated QOL.

Background: Baseline urinary incontinence (UI) strongly modulates UI recovery after adjuvant/salvage radiotherapy (ART/SRT), inducing clinicians to postpone it "as much as possible", maximizing UI recovery but possibly reducing efficacy. This series aims to analyze the trend of UI recovery and its predictors at radiotherapy start., Methods: A population of 408 patients treated with ART/SRT enrolled in a cohort study (ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT02803086) aimed at developing predictive models of radiation-induced toxicities. Self-reported UI and personality traits, evaluated by means of the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ-SF) and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire - Revised (EPQ-R) questionnaires, were assessed at ART/SRT start. Several endpoints based on baseline ICIQ-SF were investigated: frequency and amount of urine loss (ICIQ3 and ICIQ4, respectively), "objective" UI (ICIQ3 + 4), "subjective" UI (ICIQ5), and "TOTAL" UI (ICIQ3 +4 + 5). The relationship between each endpoint and time from prostatectomy to radiotherapy (TTRT) was investigated. The association between clinical and personality variables and each endpoint was tested by uni- and multivariable logistic regression., Results: TTRT was the strongest predictor for all endpoints ( p -values ≤ 0.001); all scores improved between 4 and 8 months after prostatectomy, without any additional long-term recovery. Neuroticism independently predicted subjective UI, TOTAL UI, and daily frequency., Conclusions: Early UI recovery mostly depends on TTRT with no further improvement after 8 months from prostatectomy. Higher levels of neuroticism may overestimate UI.

Background and Purpose: To assess bowel dose-volume relationships for acute patient-reported intestinal symptoms of patients treated with whole-pelvis intensity-modulated radiotherapy (WPRT) for prostate cancer., Materials and Methods: Complete data of 415 patients enrolled in a multi institute, prospective trial (#NCT02803086) treated with radical (31%), adjuvant (33%) and salvage (36%) intent at a median dose to pelvic nodes/lymph-nodal area of 53 Gy were available. The most severe changes between baseline and radiotherapy mid-point/end toxicity assessed by Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (only Bowel Domain) were considered (ΔIBDQ). The 25th percentile values of these score variations were set as endpoints. DVHs of bowel loops for patients with/without toxicity were compared for each endpoint, having excluded patients with baseline scores <5 (rate ranging between 2% and 7% according to the endpoint): the resulting best dosimetric predictors were combined with selected clinical parameters through multivariate logistic regression (MVA) to derive predictive models., Results: ΔIBDQ ranged between 0.2-1.5 points considering separately each IBDQ symptom. Only four symptoms (IBDQ1 = frequency, IBDQ5 = diarrhea, IBDQ17 = gas passage, IBDQ24 = urgency) showed a median worsening ≥ 1; DVH predicted the risk of worse symptoms for IBDQ5, IBDQ24 and overall Bowel Domain. At multivariable analysis DVHs (best cut-off: V46Gy ≥80 cc) and baseline scores (Odd-Ratio:0.35-0.65) were independently associated to the three end-points. The resulting models were reliable (H&L test: 0.453-0.956), well calibrated (calibration plot: slope = 0.922-1.069, R 2  = 0.725-0.875) and moderately discriminative (Area Under the Curve:0.628-0.669). A bootstrap-based validation confirmed their robustness., Conclusion: Constraining the bowel loops (V46 < 80 cc) may reduce the risk of several moderate intestinal symptoms, with a much greater impact for patients with lower IBDQ baseline scores., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To investigate predictors of patient-reported urinary incontinence (PRUI) in the first 2 years after post-prostatectomy radiotherapy (PORT) with particular emphasis on possible dose-effect relationships. Patients and Methods: Two-hundred-thirteen patients, whose clinical and dosimetric data were prospectively collected within a registered multi-institutional cohort study, underwent PORT with adjuvant ( n = 106) or salvage ( n = 107) intent with conventional ( n = 123, prescribed dose to the prostatic bed: 66.6-79.8Gy in 1.8-2.0Gy/fr) or moderately hypo- ( n = 90, 65.8-76.8Gy in 2.1-2.7Gy/fr) fractionation during the period 2011-2017. PRUI was evaluated through the ICIQ-SF questionnaire filled in at baseline and every 6 months thereafter. The analysis focused on three ICIQ-based clinically relevant endpoints: (a) very frequent leakage (FREQUENCY, ICIQ3 score >3), (b) moderate to severe amount of urine loss (AMOUNT, ICIQ4>2) (c) objective severe symptoms (OBJECTIVE, ICIQ3+4>5). Predictors of the incidence within 2 years for the three endpoints were investigated focusing only on patients without endpoint symptoms at baseline. A uni-variable logistic regression analysis was performed in order to determine the best dose metrics describing PRUI risk in terms of 2-Gy equivalent dose (EQD2) calculated with different α/β values reported in the literature (0.8, 3, 5Gy), and to identify the most significant clinical variables. Variables showing p < 0.20 at uni-variable analysis were entered into a backward stepwise multi-variable logistic regression analysis. Lastly, the goodness of fit and model calibration were evaluated and internally validated. Results: Patients without symptoms at baseline experienced (a), (b), and/or (c) within 2 years in 41/130 (32%), 40/192 (21%), and 41/129 (32%) of the cases, respectively. EQD2 for α/β = 0.8Gy was the best dose metric associated with PRUI. Multi-variable analysis identified baseline incontinence levels as the strongest predictor for all endpoints ( p < 0.006). Both FREQUENCY and OBJECTIVE were significantly influenced also by EQD2(α/β = 0.8Gy). The goodness of fit was excellent, as was the calibration; internal calibration confirmed apparent performance. Conclusion: Baseline mild urinary incontinence symptoms strongly modulate the 2-year risk of PRUI. In addition, FREQUENCY is characterized by a marked dose-effect relationship also influencing the trend of OBJECTIVE, with results more reliable than AMOUNT as an objective index. A strong impact of fractionation on severe PRUI after post-prostatectomy radiotherapy also emerged., (Copyright © 2020 Bresolin, Garibaldi, Faiella, Cante, Vavassori, Waskiewicz, Girelli, Avuzzi, Villa, Magli, Noris Chiorda, Munoz, Sanguineti, Gabriele, Gatti, Rancati, Valdagni, Di Muzio, Fiorino and Cozzarini.)