Introduction: Robot-assisted radical prostatectomy has become an increasingly accepted approach for treating localized prostate cancer. We have enrolled all patients electing this approach in a prospective study of patient self-assessed health related quality of life (HRQOL) outcomes using a validated questionnaire. We report the early results from an initial cohort of 90 patients.

Method: All patients in this research study that underwent robotic radical prostatectomy between 9/2003 and 5/2005 were administered the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) questionnaire pre-operatively, and at defined time intervals at 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, and 18 months following surgery. Only patients with a minimum follow-up of 3 months were included in the analysis. Mean domain-specific HRQOL scores (±SD) and the proportion of patients achieving their baseline scores at each given time point was calculated. Return to baseline was defined as a standardized EPIC score within 10 points of a patient's pre-operative score.

Result: By 6 months, the proportions of patients who recovered baseline summary scores were 56.5% in the urinary domain, 85.7% in the bowel domain, and 90.9% in the hormonal domain. In the sexual domain, 20.7% of patients had recovered baseline by 12 months. Median time to recovery of baseline summary scores were 6.6 months (95% CI 5.9-7.2) in the urinary domain, 2.8 months (95% CI 2.0-3.7) in the bowel domain, and 3.0 months (95% CI 2.2-3.9) in the hormonal domain.

Conclusion: Our results are in line with other surgical approaches with regards
to quality of life assessment.

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