Real-world use of epic for clinical practice (EPIC-CP) to assess patient-reported prostate cancer quality of life in the clinical setting.

Abstract

18 Background: Prostate cancer practitioners tend to underestimate patients’ treatment-related side effects. We developed the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite for Clinical Practice (EPIC-CP) to facilitate patient-reported health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessment at the point-of-care (Chang P et al, J Urol Sep 2011). We sought to demonstrate the feasibility of EPIC-CP use in routine clinical care, and to compare longitudinal patient-reported and practitioner-reported prostate cancer outcomes. Methods: We reviewed practitioner- and patient-reported HRQOL outcomes in 482 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy at our institution from 2010 to 2014. All EPIC-CP questionnaires were administered and interpreted without research personnel. Practitioner-reported outcomes were assessed using chart review. We used the paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test to compare pre- and post-treatment EPIC-CP domain scores, and Fisher’s exact test to compare patient-reported and practitioner-reported outcomes. We considered p-values < 0.05 statistically significant. Results: 708 total EPIC-CP questionnaires were completed. Mean urinary incontinence domain scores increased (worsened) significantly from baseline (0.6±0.2) to 3 (3.1±2.3) and 6 months (2.2±2.1) post-treatment, but were not statistically changed from baseline at 12 months (1.6±1.7). Patient-reported incontinence pad-free rates using EPIC-CP at 3, 6, and 12 months were 47%, 76%, and 78%, respectively, which were consistent with practitioner-reported rates. Mean sexual domain scores were significantly worse at 12 months (5.9±3.3) compared to baseline (2.4±2.8). Practitioners significantly overestimated the rate of functional erections compared to patients’ EPIC-CP-reported rates at 3 months (18% vs 12%, p < 0.05) and 12 months (45% vs 23%, p < 0.05). Bowel and vitality/hormonal scores were unchanged, and urinary irritation/obstruction scores improved after surgery. Conclusions: EPIC-CP is feasible to use in the routine clinical care of prostate cancer patients, and can help practitioners more accurately assess patients’ post-treatment symptom severity.