Clinical Use of Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite for Clinical Practice to Assess Patient Reported Prostate Cancer Quality of Life Following Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy

18 Background: Prostate cancer practitioners tend to underestimate patients’ treatment-related side effects. We developed the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite for Clinical Practice (EPIC-CP) to facilitate patient-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessment at the point-of-care (Chang P et al, J Urol Sep 2011). We sought to demonstrate the feasibility of EPIC-CP use in routine clinical care, and to compare longitudinal patient-reported and practitioner-reported prostate cancer outcomes. Methods: We reviewed practitioner- and patient-reported HRQOL outcomes in 482 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy at our institution from 2010 to 2014. All EPIC-CP questionnaires were administered and interpreted without research personnel. Practitioner-reported outcomes were assessed using chart review. We used the paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test to compare pre- and post-treatment EPIC-CP domain scores, and Fisher’s exact test to compare patient-reported and practitioner-reported outcomes. We considered p-values < 0.05 statistically significant. Results: 708 total EPIC-CP questionnaires were completed. Mean urinary incontinence domain scores increased (worsened) significantly from baseline (0.6±0.2) to 3 (3.1±2.3) and 6 months (2.2±2.1) post-treatment, but were not statistically changed from baseline at 12 months (1.6±1.7). Patient-reported incontinence pad-free rates using EPIC-CP at 3, 6, and 12 months were 47%, 76%, and 78%, respectively, which were consistent with practitioner-reported rates. Mean sexual domain scores were significantly worse at 12 months (5.9±3.3) compared to baseline (2.4±2.8). Practitioners significantly overestimated the rate of functional erections compared to patients’ EPIC-CP-reported rates at 3 months (18% vs 12%, p < 0.05) and 12 months (45% vs 23%, p < 0.05). Bowel and vitality/hormonal scores were unchanged, and urinary irritation/obstruction scores improved after surgery. Conclusions: EPIC-CP is feasible to use in the routine clinical care of prostate cancer patients, and can help practitioners more accurately assess patients’ post-treatment symptom severity.

Download Full-text

Evaluating the correlation between early and late quality-of-life declines using the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite for Clinical Practice (EPIC-CP) after definitive stereotactic body radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, or brachytherapy for prostate cancer.

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.2021.39.6_suppl.214 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 39 (6_suppl) ◽

pp. 214-214

Author(s):

Jacob Samuel Parzen ◽

Thomas J Quinn ◽

Andrew B Thompson ◽

Peter Chang ◽

Sean P. Collins ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Prostate Cancer ◽

Clinical Practice ◽

Patient Reported Outcomes ◽

Univariate Analysis ◽

Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy ◽

Late Toxicity ◽

Intensity Modulated ◽

Patient Reported

214 Background: Multiple authorities including an NCI Taskforce have recommended routine evaluation of patient reported outcomes (PRO) in cancer care. The Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite for Clinical Practice (EPIC-CP) is a single-page quality-of-life (QOL) tool which is easily integrated into routine clinical practice. The EPIC-CP has 5 domains (each scored 0-12). The present study evaluated whether early clinically significant changes in EPIC-CP were correlated with later changes in patients undergoing definitive radiotherapy (RT) for prostate cancer. Methods: A cohort of 979 patients including the PROSTQA study and 3 other institutions with prospective QOL data pooled for analysis were evaluated for patient-reported outcomes. Patients were treated with definitive low-dose rate brachytherapy (n=284), intensity-modulated RT (n=251), or stereotactic body RT (n=444). EPIC-CP scores were derived based upon responses to the EPIC-26. Data were evaluated using minimal clinically important difference (MCID) thresholds to compare QOL at 1-2 months and 24 months from baseline. Univariate analysis was used to assess the correlation between early and late MCID changes. Results: On univariate analysis, early ≥1 MCID change from baseline was strongly associated with a late ≥1 MCID across all 5 domains (urinary incontinence, urinary irritation/obstruction, bowel, sexual, and vitality/hormonal) within EPIC-CP and for the overall EPIC-CP score (Table). When MCID was instead defined as 1 or 3, early toxicity remained predictive of late toxicity for all domains and the overall EPIC-CP score. Conclusions: The EPIC-CP is an easy-to-use QOL assessment with clinically relevant outcomes. Early QOL decline was strongly associated with late QOL decline in patients undergoing definitive RT for prostate cancer across all EPIC-CP domains. Patients with early QOL decline may be candidates for early QOL-based interventions to alleviate their late toxicity burden from treatment. [Table: see text]

Download Full-text