SAN FRANCISCO—Prostate cancer is associated with significantly increased urinary bother in community-dwelling older men with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), data suggest.
The finding comes from a study of 5,981 men participating in the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study, a prospective cohort study of community-dwelling men aged 65 years and older. The study, led by J. Kellogg Parsons, MD, MHS, of the University of California-San Diego, is the first to compare LUTS in older men with and without prostate cancer.
At baseline, 707 men (13%) reported a history of prostate cancer; of these, 51% had undergoing surgical treatment, 29% received radiation therapy, 10% had primary androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), 6% received no treatment (watchful waiting), and 4% had “other” treatment such as cryotherapy.
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Compared with subjects without prostate cancer, those with the malignancy who were treated with watchful waiting, surgery, or ADT were 33%, 25%, and 50% more likely to have clinically significant urinary bother (defined as an American Urological Association Symptom Index Urinary Satisfaction Score of 3 or higher), according to data presented at the American Urological Association annual meeting. The researchers observed no significant difference in risk among patients treated with radiation, probably because urinary incontinence is less of a problem with radiation treatment. The next step in their study will be to analyze urinary incontinence in these men.
“These observations suggest that prostate cancer is associated with substantially diminished urinary health even in men pursuing minimal intervention,” the authors concluded.
