DISTRESS DUE TO UNWANTED SIDE-EFFECTS OF PROSTATE-CANCER TREATMENT ISRELATED TO IMPAIRED WELL-BEING (QUALITY-OF-LIFE)

Based on traditional quality of life scales, it has been suggested tha t known side-effects of prostate cancer treatment do not influence the quality of life. The present authors have developed an alternative ap proach to quality of life assessment applying epidemiological methods. Using a self administered questionnaire, we investigated 431 prostate cancer patients and an age stratified sample of 435 randomly selected men. Patients reporting any level of distress due to waning sexual fu nctions (66%) or urine or bowel symptoms (38%), reported a lower psych ological well-being compared to patients not reporting these symptoms or patients not distressed by their symptoms. Our results stress that an intact sexual and urinary and bowel functions are important for the quality of life among elderly men with or without prostate cancer.