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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men faced with deciding what prostate cancer treatment to opt for should weigh the fact that surgery, external beam radiation therapy, and radioactive seed implants (brachytherapy) have different effects on subsequent quality of life, according to a report in the medical journal Cancer.
Men in this situation "are best served by thoughtfully considering both cure rates and quality-of-life implications in their decision-making," Dr. Mark S. Litwin told Reuters Health.
Litwin, at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues evaluated general and disease-specific health-related quality of life in 580 men after being treated for localized prostate cancer with surgical removal of the prostate (radical prostatectomy), or external beam radiation therapy, or brachytherapy.
The type of treatment did not influence general health-related quality of life, the researchers report, but there were several differences in specifics.
Urinary control and sexual function were worst after radical prostatectomy, followed by seed implants and external radiation.
In contrast, bowel problems were significantly more common among men who had either external or internal radiation treatment than among those who had surgery, the researchers note.
Over the long term, the investigators found, similar proportions of men in the three treatment groups reported severe urinary problems and severe sexual difficulties, but bowel dysfunction was more pronounced in those who got external radiation of radioactive implants.
"The findings of the current study address patients' clarion call for physicians to be more responsive to concerns about the quality of life, not only its quantity, after prostate cancer treatment," the researchers conclude.
SOURCE: Cancer, June 1, 2007.
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