Symptom clusters related to treatment for prostate cancer.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To identify symptom clusters that include urinary and erectile dysfunction among men treated for prostate cancer. DESIGN Secondary data analysis. SETTING University-affiliated urology clinic. SAMPLE Data collected on 402 men for a longitudinal prostate cancer quality-of-life study. METHODS Data were collected from an eight-month time point. Four analytic approaches were applied to determine whether consistent clusters of symptoms were identifiable. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES Pain, fatigue, emotional distress, and urinary, sexual, and bowel dysfunction. FINDINGS Thirty-three percent of patients reported scores on three or more quality-of-life measures falling in the lowest quartile for that measure. Although composition of the clusters was not consistent, poor mental health or poor energy was a component of any cluster made up of three or more symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Using a four-way analytic approach enabled the authors to explore how symptom clusters measuring general and disease-specific quality of life occurred in patients who have been treated for prostate cancer. When clusters occur, fatigue and emotional distress often are included. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING Fatigue and emotional distress may be seen together or in combination with prostate cancer-specific symptoms. Nurses should be more alert to the possibility of additional treatment-related symptoms when fatigue or emotional distress is present.