Radiation-induced toxicity in prostate cancer: prediction and impact on quality of life

Radiotherapy offers the opportunity to treat prostate cancer in an effective manner, considering high tumor control and survival. The organs around the prostate receive unwanted, but unavoidable irradiation as a consequence of this treatment. Particularly the intestines and bladder can be damaged due to this radiation and may result in side effects such as incontinence, blood loss and pain. When it is clear which dose causes which side effect, this information can be used to change future treatment plans. This research has shown that dose to the pelvic floor muscles, dose to the last part of the large intestine and dose to specific parts of the bladder are predictive of the aforementioned side effects. This thesis also shows that these side effects influence a patients’ quality of life. To optimize the quality of life of a prostate cancer survivor more attention should be given to side effects that have the largest impact on quality of life. A comparative study with a group of men without prostate cancer shows that the quality of life of these patients differs slightly from this normative group of men.