Follow-up phase
obstructive urinary symptoms, anxiety/depression
URINARY INCONTINENCE
After completing radiation therapy as per the study protocol, patients will be seen for follow-ups every 3 months for the first 2 years following treatment and at 5 years post-treatment. At each of these time points, patients will be asked to complete the EPIC, IPSS and EuroQol-5D Index (EQ-5D) QOL questionnaires.The EPIC questionnaire is used to evaluate 5 symptom domains relating to PCa treatment including urinary incontinence, irritative or obstructive urinary symptoms, sexual symptoms, bowel symptoms and hormonal symptoms with scoring on a scale from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) [The IPSS questionnaire is used to evaluate lower urinary tract symptom severity with scores 0–7 representing mild symptoms, scores 8–19 representing moderate symptoms, and scores 20–35 representing severe symptoms. The IPSS also includes one question to reflect the patient’s overall urinary quality of life with answers ranging from 0 (“delighted”) to 6 (“terrible”) [The EQ-5D questionnaire is a validated instrument with QOL assessments across 5 dimensions including mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. Each dimension is graded from levels 1–5, with level 1 indicating no problems, level 2 indicating slight problems, level 3 indicating moderate problems, level 4 indicating severe problems and level 5 indicating an inability to perform/extreme problems. The EQ-5D also includes a visual analog scale that assesses overall health. The scores across the 5 dimensions are transformed into an index utility score between 0 (“worst health state”) and 1 (“best health state”) [