Main Session
Sep
28
PQA 04 - Breast Cancer, Patient Reported Outcomes/QoL/Survivorship, Functional Radiation Medicine, Hematologic Malignancies, Palliative Care, and International/Global Oncology
2931 - Early Patient-Reported Quality of Life after Moderately Hypofractionated vs. Conventional Definitive Radiotherapy for Non-Metastatic Prostate Cancer: A Real-World Study from a Regional Center in China
Presenter(s)
Senxiang Yan, MD, PhD - The 1st Affiliated Hospital College of Medicine Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang
Y. Jiang1, D. Chen1, H. Chen2, H. Yu1, Z. Lu1, S. Yan1, and F. Zhao1; 1Department of Radiation Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, 2Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Frontier Medical Research on Cancer Metabolism, Hangzhou, China
Purpose/Objective(s):
Moderately hypofractionated radiotherapy has become a standard treatment option for localized prostate cancer; however, real-world evidence regarding early patient-reported outcomes (PROs) remains limited. This study compared early quality-of-life (QoL) outcomes between hypofractionated and conventional fractionation using the EPIC-26 questionnaire in routine clinical practice.Materials/Methods:
We conducted a real-world observational study at a regional center in China, the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. We retrospectively analyzed 286 patients with non-metastatic prostate cancer treated with definitive radiotherapy between 2014 and 2025. Hypofractionated radiotherapy was delivered to 107 patients, while 179 patients received conventional fractionation. PROs were assessed using EPIC-26 across urinary, bowel, sexual, and hormonal domains at baseline, during treatment, and at 3 months post-radiotherapy. Between-group comparisons were performed using chi-square tests or independent t-tests, and longitudinal changes during early follow-up were evaluated using ANOVA, with statistical significance defined as p<0.05.Results:
In this real-world cohort, both fractionation regimens were well tolerated and demonstrated comparable overall early QoL trajectories across EPIC-26 domains. No statistically significant differences were observed between treatment groups in urinary or bowel symptoms over time (p>0.05), and no severe bowel symptoms were reported. Early changes in sexual function were observed, with domain-specific differences noted at early follow-up, while no statistically significant differences between fractionation regimens were observed over the early follow-up period (p>0.05).Conclusion:
In routine clinical practice, moderately hypofractionated radiotherapy was associated with early patient-reported quality-of-life outcomes comparable to those of conventional fractionation. These findings support the feasibility of hypofractionation from a patient-centered perspective and underscore the value of real-world PRO data in complementing evidence from randomized trials. This study has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82171890).