Quality of life and satisfaction among prostate cancer patients followed in a dedicated survivorship clinic

Background: Integrating quality-of-life (QOL) outcomes into clinics may assist providers in identifying and responding to problems experienced by cancer survivors. To date, however, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) such as QOL are used infrequently to guide care. We integrated QOL assessments into a prostate cancer survivorship clinic and compared recovery and satisfaction among men managed in the survivorship clinic with those followed with more routine care.

Methods: We conducted a before-after study comparing 235 men treated surgically for prostate cancer who received routine follow-up care with 102 men managed in a survivorship clinic characterized by point-of-care QOL reporting and integration of QOL scores (EPIC) following radical prostatectomy. We then assessed baseline and postprostatectomy QOL at 6 and 12 months, as well as patient satisfaction, and compared outcomes between groups.

Results: Although baseline QOL was comparable, scores were generally higher among the survivorship group at 6 months and 1 year compared with those followed with routine care. In particular, sexual function scores were significantly higher among patients managed in the survivorship clinic (52.2 vs 33.6 at 1 year, P < .01). Satisfaction scores were consistently higher in the survivorship clinic group compared with the routine-care group (all P < .05).

Conclusions: Patient QOL and satisfaction were higher among men managed in a survivorship program, suggesting that disease-specific survivorship clinics that integrate QOL reporting into care pathways may yield better outcomes compared with less tailored approaches to patient care following cancer therapy.