Long-Term Quality of Life Following Treatment for Localized Prostate Cancer

Given the excellent survival rates for men with localized prostate cancer — approaching 95% at 15 years — and the evolving role of active surveillance in favorable-risk patients, long-term patient reported outcomes are increasingly important to inform management decisions.

To assess long-term, treatment-related changes in quality of life after diagnosis of prostate cancer, investigators in Australia conducted a prospective, population-based cohort study of 1642 men younger than 70 with localized T1–T4 disease and 786 age-matched controls randomly selected from the New South Wales electoral roll.

General and disease-specific quality-of-life data were self-reported at 7 time points over 15 years using validated instruments. Of the 502 treated p…