Health-related quality of life after carbon-ion radiotherapy for prostate cancer: A 3-year prospective study

Objectives To assess 3-year health-related quality of life of patients treated with carbon ion radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Methods A total of 213 patients received carbon-ion radiotherapy at a total dose of 66 Gy equivalent in 20 fractions over 5 weeks, and neoadjuvant and adjuvant androgen deprivation therapy were administered for high-risk patients for at least 12 months. A health-related quality of life assessment was carried out at four time-points (immediately before the initiation of carbon-ion radiotherapy, immediately after, 12 and 36 months after completion of carbon-ion radiotherapy) using Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy General and for Prostate Cancer Patients. Results The evaluable response rates among all responses were more than 94%. Overall, a significant decrease in the scores of the health-related quality of life 12 months after carbon-ion radiotherapy returned to their baseline levels at 36 months. Additionally, no significant decrease was observed in the scores at any of the assessment time-points compared with their baseline scores in the group of carbon-ion radiotherapy without androgen deprivation therapy; however, the presence of morbidity and biochemical failure significantly worsened the scores, and the decreases in the scores did not improve even at 36 months after carbon-ion radiotherapy. Conclusions An assessment based on a subjective scoring system shows a significant decrease in health-related quality of life at 12 months after carbon-ion radiation therapy, which tends to return to baseline levels at 36 months. The presence of morbidity and biochemical failure significantly worsen health-related quality of life scores. Further controlled studies focusing on health-related quality of life assessment in patients with prostate cancer are warranted.