Long-term androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) with leuprorelin and quality of life in patients with advanced prostate cancer (PCa).

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268 Background: LHRH analogs are the gold standard for treatment of patients with hormone-sensitive advanced PCa. In this study, we investigated the quality of life (QoL) of PCa patients under long-term treatment with leuprorelin acetate in microcapsules (1, 3, and 6 month depot formulation) for up to 19.8 years. Methods: Observational and retrospective analysis of data from 536 PCa patients treated with leuproreline and 116 patients of a control group (CG, ≥ 77 years of age, > 5 years urological treatment, no cancer, no ADT). Data was collected in 30 German office based urological practices using EORTC questionnaires QLQ-C30 and QLQ-PR25. Results: Mean treatment duration was 8.6 years (range: 4.5 - 19.8 years). Mean age ± SD of PCa patients (79.6 ± 6.3 years) was comparable to CG (80.5 ± 3.1 years), as were body height, weight, BMI, and Karnofsky-Index (88.0 ± 12.7 vs. 88.4 ± 12.0). The general health status (QLQ-C30) was comparable for PCa patients vs. CG: 64.6 ± 20.5 vs. 66.8 ± 20.3; p = 0.3117. Marginal differences were observed regarding physical functioning (73.2 ± 23.1 vs. 78.1 ± 21.0; p = 0.0402) and role functioning (70.6 ± 30.4 vs. 74.4 ± 25.7; p = 0.1648). PCa patients rated fatigue (33.6 ± 25.1 vs. 28.8 ± 23.3; p = 0.0629), dyspnoea (24.0 ± 28.5 vs. 19.6 ± 26.9; p = 0.1307), and insomnia (28.9 ± 32.6 vs. 23.7 ± 27.2; p = 0.0751) slightly worse than CG. As assessed by QLQ-PR25, PCa patients scored lower on sexual activity (12.0 ± 20.6 vs. 23.7 ± 25.7; p < 0.0001) and sexual function (43.3 ± 25.8 vs. 55.9 ± 27.0; p = 0.0067) compared to CG. PCa patients had less urinary tract symptoms (28.2 ± 19.8 vs. 31.2 ± 19.2; p = 0.1472) but stronger symptoms of androgen deprivation (21.4 ± 17.3 vs. 10.8 ± 13.2; p < 0.0001), and they had a higher need of incontinence aids (29.6 ± 34.2 vs. 16.7 ± 20.5; p = 0.0056) – however, 136 of the 536 PCa patients had a prostatectomy. Conclusions: In this study, PCa patients treated with leuprorelin for up to 19.8 years (8.6 years on average) had an overall QoL comparable to an age-matched control group. As expected, sexual activity and sexual function were lower in PCa patients under ADT. Overall, treatment with leuprorelin is a well-tolerated long-term therapy for patients with hormone-sensitive advanced PCa. Clinical trial information: ENA E005(a) / DE-N-LEU-019(a).