Monitoring of health-related quality of life and symptoms in prostate cancer survivors: a randomized trial.

BACKGROUND: Routine symptom and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessments can engage patients, give provider feedback, and improve doctor/patient communication.

OBJECTIVE: We compared the impact of a technology-assisted symptom monitoring system versus usual care on HRQOL and doctor/patient communication in early-stage prostate cancer (PCa) survivors.

METHODS: Men (N = 94) were on average 62-years old, mostly African American (AA; 61.7%), and 10-19 months post-treatment. They were randomized to symptom monitoring plus feedback (SM + F; n = 49) or usual care (UC; n = 45). SM+F participants completed a 12-item telephoneassisted monitoring intervention. All participants completed a baseline and 2 follow-up interviews.

RESULTS: Among the SM+F participants, perceptions of the monitoring system were positive: 97.1% endorsed it as easy/very easy to use and 85% felt all patients could benefit from it. At baseline, men reported favorable general and cancer-specific HRQOL and doctor/patient communication, but poorer urinary and sexual function. Although there was no overall impact of the intervention, post hoc exploratory analyses indicated that among AA men, those who received SM+F improved relative to UC on doctor/patient communication (P < .05), general HRQOL (P < .06), and sexual function (P < .05).

LIMITATIONS: Variability in survivor follow-up care, limited access to eligible participants, and minimal physician training in the use of reports likely decreased physician investment.

CONCLUSION: Overall, PCa survivors were receptive to this monitoring system. Exploratory analyses suggest that this technology-assisted monitoring system may be of particular benefit to African American men. Additional studies with larger samples, more intervention time-points, and increased physician training are needed to strengthen the intervention's impact.