Comparison of patient-reported quality of life outcome questionnaire response rates between patients treated surgically for renal cell carcinoma and prostate carcinoma

David D. Thiel, Andrew J. Davidiuk, Gregory A. Broderick, Michelle Arnold, Nancy Diehl, Andrea Tavlarides, Kaitlynn Custer, Alexander S. Parker

We sought to examine differences in response rates to quality of life (QoL) surveys in patients treated surgically for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and prostate cancer (PCa) and to analyze factors associated with non-response of the surveys. Patients who underwent surgery for RCC or PCa between 2006 and 2012 were offered enrollment in respective prospective cancer registries that included baseline and annual QoL assessments. We identified 201 RCC patients and 616 PCa patients who completed a baseline QoL survey and were mailed annual QoL surveys [RCC: SF-36, FACT-G (73 questions), PCa: EPIC, IIEF, Max-PC (80 questions)]. We compared patient characteristics between responders and non-responders using a Wilcoxon rank-sum test for continuous variables and a Fisher's Exact test for categorical variables. The overall response rates for the PCa and RCC groups were 63 and 48 % (p < 0.001), respectively. This difference in response rates remained when we limited analysis to only those with early stage disease (pT2 for PCa and pT1 RCC, 62 % vs. 52 %; p = 0.03). PCa characteristics associated with response included older age (64.1 vs 62.6 years, p = 0.032) and robotic versus open surgery (56 % vs 44 %; p = 0.009). There were no characteristics that were associated with response in RCC patients. Surgically treated PCa patients have higher QoL mail-based survey response rates compared to patients treated surgically for RCC. This difference holds true for clinically localized cancers as well.