The Impact of Acute Urinary Retention After Iodine-125 Prostate Brachytherapy on Health-Related Quality of Life

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of acute urinary retention (AUR) in patients treated with 125I prostate brachytherapy on short- and long-term health-related quality of life (HRQOL); and to assess whether pretreatment HRQOL has additional value in the prediction of AUR. Methods and Materials: For 127 patients treated with 125I brachytherapy for localized prostate cancer between December 2000 and June 2003, toxicity and HRQOL data were prospectively collected. Patients received a HRQOL questionnaire at five time points: before and 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, and 6 years after treatment. The questionnaire included the RAND-36 generic health survey, the cancer-specific European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer core questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), the tumor-specific EORTC prostate cancer module (EORTC QLQ-PR25), and the American Urological Association (AUA) symptom index. Results: Of 127 patients, 13 (10.2%) developed AUR. Patients with AUR had a significantly worse urinary QOL at all time points compared with patients without AUR. The mean difference over time (6 years) between both groups for the EORTC QLQ-PR25 urinary symptom score was 13.0 points (p < 0.001) and for the AUA urinary symptom score was 15.7 points (p = 0.001). Global QOL scores (EORTC QLQ-C30) over time for patients who developed AUR were significantly worse compared with patients without AUR (mean difference 6.7 points; p = 0.043). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, pretreatment International Prostate Symptom Score (p = 0.004) and neoadjuvant hormonal treatment (p = 0.034) were predictors of AUR. Quality of life did not have added predictive value. Conclusion: Acute urinary retention after prostate brachytherapy has a significant negative impact on patient's HRQOL up to 6 years after treatment, in terms of both global QOL measures and urinary symptom scores. Furthermore, our results suggest limited value of pretreatment HRQOL measures for the prediction of AUR.