A systematic review of the patient reported outcomes that affect patients with muscle invasive bladder cancer after radical cystectomy and urinary diversion

Objectives: To determine the functional domains and symptom scales that affect patients most following radical cystectomy (RC) and urinary diversion (UD), and if a single instrument (or combination) adequately captures these bothersome symptoms. It is unclear whether current patient reported outcome (PRO) instruments that have been used to assess quality of life in patients following RC and UD adequately cover the most bothersome symptoms affecting patients.

Materials and methods: A systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Cinahl and Cochrane was conducted from January 2000 to May 2023 for original articles of patients who had RC and UD since 2000 for muscle invasive bladder cancer. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) process was followed. Extracted data included the PRO measures used, domains reported and scores in the first 12 months post-surgery (short-term) and after 12 months (long-term). A conservative threshold of <70 for functional domains and >30 for symptom domains was used to determine which PRO domains were potentially concerning to patients in each study. Quality assessment was performed using the QUALSYST appraisal tool.

Results: Thirty-five studies met the inclusion criteria, including a total of eight unique PRO instruments. The main findings indicated that physical function was the most concerning PRO for patients with both neobladder (NB) and ileal conduit (IC) in the short and long term. Additionally, bowel, urinary and sexual bother were concerning symptoms for patients with NB in the long-term, but only in the short-term for those with IC.

Conclusions: The main issues are adequately addressed using the combination of EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BLM30 instruments.