Does the Presence of a Major Psychiatric Disorder Affect Tolerance and Outcomes in Men With Prostate Cancer Receiving Radiation Therapy?

Prior studies have suggested that men with prostate cancer and psychiatric disorders (+Psy) have worse outcomes compared with those without (-Psy), particularly due to delayed diagnosis or reduced access to definitive treatment. In the current study, the toxicity and outcomes of men who were primarily diagnosed through prostate-specific antigen screening and who underwent definitive treatment with external beam radiation was investigated. The charts of 469 men diagnosed with prostate cancer from 2003 to 2010 were reviewed. The presence of +Psy was based on a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth edition diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and/or generalized anxiety disorder. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to analyze biochemical control, distant control, prostate cancer-specific survival, and overall survival. One hundred patients (21.3%) were identified as +Psy. At a median follow-up of 73 months, there were no differences regarding 6-year biochemical control (79.8% -Psy vs. 80.4% +Psy, p = .50) or 6-year distant metastatic-free survival (96.4% -Psy vs. 98.0% +Psy, p = .36). There were also no differences regarding the 6-year prostate cancer-specific survival (98.4% -Psy vs. 99.0% +Psy, p = .45) or 6-year overall survival (80.2% -Psy vs. 82.2% +Psy, p = .35). Short- and long-term genitourinary and gastrointestinal toxicities were similar between the groups. On multivariate analyses with propensity score adjustment, +Psy was not a significant predictor for toxicity, biochemical recurrence, or survival. The presence of +Psy was not associated with higher toxicity or worse clinical outcomes, suggesting that effective removal of screening and treatment barriers may reduce the survival disparities of these patients.