Health-related quality of life among prostate cancer survivors with metastatic disease and non-metastatic disease and men without a cancer history in the USA

Background Few studies have comprehensively compared health-related quality of life (HRQoL) between metastatic prostate cancer survivors, survivors with non-metastatic disease, and men without a cancer history. Methods We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (SEER-MHOS) data linkage to identify men aged ≥ 65 years enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Prostate cancer survivors were diagnosed between 1988 and 2017 and completed MHOS surveys between 1998 and 2019. We analyzed data from 752 metastatic prostate cancer survivors (1040 survey records), 19,583 localized or regional prostate cancer survivors (non-metastatic; 30,121 survey records), and 784,305 men aged ≥ 65 years without a cancer history in the same SEER regions (1.15 million survey records). We used clustered linear regressions to compare HRQoL measures at the person-level using the Veterans RAND 12 Item Health Survey (VR-12) T-scores for general health and physical and mental component summaries. Results Compared to men without a cancer history, prostate cancer survivors were older, more likely to be married, and had higher socioeconomic status. Compared to men without a cancer history, metastatic prostate cancer survivors reported lower general health ( T -score differences [95% confidence interval]: − 6.26, [− 7.14, − 5.38], p < .001), physical health (− 4.33, [− 5.18, − 3.48], p < .001), and mental health (− 2.64, [− 3.40, − 1.88], p < .001) component summaries. Results were similar for other VR-12 T-scores. In contrast, non-metastatic prostate cancer survivors reported similar VR-12 T -scores as men without a cancer history. Further analyses comparing metastatic and non-metastatic prostate cancer survivors support these findings. Conclusion Interventions to improve health-related quality of life for men diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer merit additional investigation. Implications for cancer survivors Interventions to improve health-related quality of life for metastatic prostate cancer survivors merit additional investigation.