Health-related quality of life after treatment for bladder cancer in England

Abstract

Background: Little is known about quality of life after bladder cancer treatment. This common cancer is managed using treatments that can affect urinary, sexual and bowel function.

Methods: To understand quality of life and inform future care, the Department of Health (England) surveyed adults surviving bladder cancer 1–5 years after diagnosis. Questions related to disease status, co-existing conditions, generic health (EQ-5D), cancer-generic (Social Difficulties Inventory) and cancer-specific outcomes (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy—Bladder).

Results: In total, 673 (54%) patients responded; including 500 (74%) men and 539 (80%) with co-existing conditions. Most respondents received endoscopic treatment (60%), while 92 (14%) and 99 (15%) received radical cystectomy or radiotherapy, respectively. Questionnaire completion rates varied (51–97%). Treatment groups reported ≥1 problem using EQ-5D generic domains (59–74%). Usual activities was the most common concern. Urinary frequency was common after endoscopy (34–37%) and radiotherapy (44–50%). Certain populations were more likely to report generic, cancer-generic and cancer-specific problems; notably those with co-existing long-term conditions and those treated with radiotherapy.

Conclusion: The study demonstrates the importance of assessing patient-reported outcomes in this population. There is a need for larger, more in-depth studies to fully understand the challenges patients with bladder cancer face.

Metadata

Authors/Creators:

Mason, SJ
Downing, A https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0335-7801
Wright, P https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6129-4143
Hounsome, L
Bottomley, SE
Corner, J
Richards, M
Catto, JW
Glaser, AW

© 2018, The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Dates: