FRIDAY, July 28 (HealthDay News) -- Neoadjuvant hormonal therapy (NHT) may adversely affect the quality of life in prostate cancer patients who are treated with permanent iodine-125 brachytherapy (BT), according to a study published in the July issue of Urology.
Michael Pinkawa, M.D., of RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany, and colleagues compared quality-of-life scores and symptom rates in 134 prostate cancer patients who underwent NHT and BT and 111 controls with similar demographic characteristics who were not treated for prostate cancer.
A month after implantation, the researchers found that prostatic edema was common in the NHT-BT group but barely detectable in the BT-only group. They also found that the NHT-BT group had lower overall health-related quality-of-life scores compared with controls and those treated with BT alone. In particular, statistically significant differences of more than 10 points were seen for urinary bother, sexual function/bother and hormonal function/bother.
"The results stress the need for well-considered administration of NHT before BT and the need for reporting the use of NHT in studies dealing with BT-related toxicity," the authors conclude.
Abstract
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