To evaluate the health-related quality of life (QOL) of testicular cancer (TC) survivors using the Japanese version of the EORTC QLQ-TC26 questionnaire in a multi-institutional, cross-sectional study.
This study recruited TC survivors who were followed after treatment for TC at eight high-volume institutions between January 2018 and March 2019. The participants completed the EORTC QLQ-TC26 questionnaire and mailed the completed questionnaires to a central institution. The QOL scores were assessed according to therapeutic modality (watchful waiting, WW; chemotherapy, CT; and CT followed by retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, CT+RPLND) and follow-up period and compared using analysis of variance and Student's t-test.
A total of 567 TC survivors responded to the questionnaire. The median age at response was 43 years (IQR 35-51 years), and the median follow-up was 5.2 years (IQR 2.2-10.0 years). As for treatment side effects and physical limitations, the scores of the CT+RPLND group were significantly higher than those of the WW group, especially within one year after treatment. In addition, TC survivors in the CT+RPLND group reported high impairment related to job and education problems and future perspective less than 5 years after treatment. Even TC survivors in the WW group were anxious about job and education issues within one year after treatment.
TC survivors were anxious about not only cancer recurrence, but also their jobs and education. TC patients should be given appropriate information on QOL after treatment for TC to attenuate post-treatment anxiety and improve their health-related QOL.
Urology. 2021 Mar 27 [Epub ahead of print]
Shinichi Yamashita, Kenichi Kakimoto, Motohide Uemura, Takeshi Kishida, Koji Kawai, Terukazu Nakamura, Takayuki Goto, Takahiro Osawa, Shigeyuki Yamada, Kazuo Nishimura, Norio Nonomura, Hiroyuki Nishiyama, Takumi Shiraishi, Osamu Ukimura, Osamu Ogawa, Nobuo Shinohara, Yoshimi Suzukamo, Akihiro Ito, Yoichi Arai
Department of Urology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan. Electronic address: ., Department of Urology, Osaka International Cancer Institute, Osaka, Japan., Department of Urology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan., Department of Urology, Kanagawa Cancer Center, Yokohama, Japan., Department of Urology, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan., Department of Urology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan; Department of Urology, Saiseikai Imperial Gift Foundation Inc. Saiseikai Suita Hospital, Suita, Japan., Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan., Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medicine Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan., Department of Urology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan., Department of Urology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan., Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan., Department of Urology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan; Department of Urology, Miyagi Cancer Center, Natori, Japan.