Prevalence and Risk Factors of Emotional Distress in Patients With Prostate Cancer Assigned to External-beam Radiotherapy With or Without High-dose Rate Brachytherapy

Background/aim: Upcoming radiotherapy for prostate cancer may lead to emotional distress. This study aimed to identify the prevalence and risk factors in a retrospective cohort of 102 patients.

Patients and methods: Thirteen characteristics were evaluated for six emotional problems. To account for multiple comparisons, Bonferroni correction was used; p-values <0.0038 were significant (alpha level <0.05).

Results: Prevalence of worry, fears, sadness, depression, nervousness, and loss of interest in usual activities was 25%, 27%, 11%, 11%, 18%, and 5%, respectively. A greater number of physical problems was significantly associated with worry (p=0.0037) and fears (p<0.0001) and showed trends regarding sadness (p=0.011) and depression (p=0.011). Trends were also found for associations between younger age and worry (p=0.021), advanced primary tumor stage and fears (p=0.025), patient's history of another malignancy and nervousness (p=0.035), and between external-beam radiotherapy alone and fears (p=0.042) or nervousness (p=0.037).

Conclusion: Although the prevalence of emotional distress was comparably low, patients with risk factors may benefit from early psychological support.