Lower urinary tract symptoms of prostate cancer patients undergoing treatments over eight-month follow-up

Aims and objectives. To examine the changes in lower urinary tract symptoms after open radical prostatectomy, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy and brachytherapy and to determine which treatment resulted in improved lower urinary tract symptoms at 8 months follow-up. Background. Lower urinary tract symptoms are a primary side effect after prostate cancer treatment. Design. A time-series survey design with descriptive and comparative elements. Methods. A sample of 51 prostate cancer patients was recruited: open radical prostatectomy = 20, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy = 23 and brachytherapy = 8. Data were collected at six time points: before treatment/baseline, 1 week post-treatment, 1 month post-treatment, 2 month post-treatment, 3 month post-treatment and 8 months post-treatment. The lower urinary tract symptoms were assessed using the International Prostate Symptom Score, with a higher score indicating a worse condition. One-way ANOVA was used to predict the progress of urinary symptoms after treatments. Bootstrap re-sampling was conducted to assess the stability of the outcomes. Results. Although there were no significant differences in the lower urinary tract symptoms among the three groups after treatments, the laparoscopic radical prostatectomy group had the lowest International Prostate Symptom Score score at baseline. Compared with the baseline symptoms for patients undergoing each treatment, there were significant improvements after 2 months in the open radical prostatectomy and brachytherapy groups, and after 3 months in the laparoscopic radical prostatectomy group. Conclusions. The prostate cancer patients undergoing the three treatments have similar lower urinary tract symptoms over 8-month follow-up although different lower urinary tract symptoms were presented before treatments. Relevance to clinical practice. Results could be applied to educating and counselling prostate cancer patients regarding symptoms during recovery after surgery. It could also help patients better understand the outcomes related to the differing treatment methods.