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Annals of Oncology 12:S43-S48, 2001
© 2001 European Society for Medical Oncology

Symposium Article

Quality of life studies and genito-urinary tumors

O. Bertetto1, S. Bracarda2, M. Tamburini3 and E. Cortesi4

1 Medical Ocology Division, Le Molinette Hospital Turin
2 Medical Oncology Division, Policlinico Hospital Perugia
3 Psychological Research Division, National Tumor Institute Milan
4 Department Experimental Medicine and Pathology, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ Rome, Italy

Correspondence to: E. Corlesi, MD Medical Oncology Dept. Experimental Medicine and Pathology University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ Policlinico Umberto 1° 00161, Rome Italy E-mail: enrico.cortesi{at}uniromal.it

Background Genitourinary (GU) tumors represent a large proportion of solid cancers (1 of 4) and a wide variety of natural histories, based on various prognostic factors and resulting in different treatment options and end points. In some cases, for the same stage of disease, different treatment strategies do not impact differently on overall survival (OS): surgery vs. radiation, or radical vs. conservative multidisci-plinary approach, adjuvant or neoadjuvant, chemotherapy vs. BSC. Quality of life (QoL) is considered a reasonable end point when differences in OS do not seem to be striking.

Design A review of the literature on different disease stages was undertaken to show where and when QoL was used as the end point of treatment efficacy.

Results Very few studies have been performed in prostate, bladder and testicular cancer to show the impact of different treatment approaches on QoL. Although these studies might be considered as non-conclusive, some data may allow a better choice for the patients.

Conclusions QoL as the principal end point has not been used in clinical trials of GU tumors comparing different treatment approaches. This makes the choice between treatments offering similar survival but different toxicity patterns, body and behavioral consequences more difficult. We suggest that future prospective randomized studies should be planned taking into account the QoL as the main end point.

genito-urinary tumors, quality of life


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