title: Quality of life after therapy for localized prostate cancer.
abstract: Given the lack of unequivocal survival data clearly favoring one treatment over another for localized prostate cancer, patients strongly consider quality-of-life effects when choosing treatment for this common malignancy. In the past 15 years, a sizeable body of literature assessing health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) outcomes in localized prostate cancer has emerged. The goal of this article is to review the quality-of-life experience after treatment for localized prostate cancer. Specifically, I will briefly discuss how quality of life is measured and then review the quality of life effects of each of the commonly used treatment strategies in localized prostate cancer. Finally, I attempt to directly compare the quality-of-life effects of the various treatments to assist clinicians in advising patients with newly diagnosed localized prostate cancer.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Urology and Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. penson@usc.edu
authors.forename: David F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Penson
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires