EDITORIAL COMMENT

Abstract

A cancer diagnosis comes with profound effects on the patient's mental psyche. However, bladder cancer carries additional ramifications like potential of living with an ostomy bag, loss of sexual function, and repeat operations throughout a lifetime. Previous studies have created health related quality of life questionnaires like the Bladder Utility Symptom Scaled, 1 Perlis N. Krahn M.D. Boehme K.E. et al. The bladder utility symptom scale: a novel patient reported outcome instrument for bladder cancer. J Urol. 2018; 200: 283-291https://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2018.03.006 Crossref PubMed Scopus (21) Google Scholar and Bladder Cancer Index 2 Gilbert S.M. Dunn R.L. Hollenbeck B.K. et al. Development and Validation of the Bladder Cancer Index: a comprehensive, disease specific measure of health related quality of life in patients with localized bladder cancer. J Urol. 2010; 183: 1764-1770https://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2010.01.013 Crossref PubMed Scopus (103) Google Scholar aimed at better understanding the disease burden on various facets of function. This study used the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System-revised 3 Johnstone P.A.S. Lee J. Zhou J.M. et al. A modified Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale for symptom clusters in radiation oncology patients. Cancer Med. 2017; 6: 2034-2041https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.1125 Crossref PubMed Scopus (16) Google Scholar to evaluate patients over 65 and under 65 at different time points in treatment of bladder cancer. It fills an important gap in the literature by suggesting that age plays a vital role in the needs of the patient. It brings to light the concerns with bladder cancer in that younger patients might suffer more psychologically from the diagnosis and treatment of bladder cancer. This information can better guide urologists in managing expectations with this population of patients.