Purpose: Prostate cancer survivors can experience poor quality of life (QoL) due to urinary symptoms. Accordingly, studies on the effects of various symptom management methods for improving subjective urinary symptoms and the QoL of prostate cancer survivors have been actively conducted. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of subjective measurement of symptom management interventions for patients with prostate cancer receiving treatment.
Methods: We used PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycInfo, and Cochrane Library CENTRAL to systematically search for randomized controlled trials published in English, through January 2017.
Results: We found and systematically reviewed 14 studies for symptom management intervention content, mode of delivery, session, and provider. We then conducted a meta-analysis of seven randomized controlled trials involving 846 participants, comparing symptom management with usual care. There was a small but statistically significant improvement in subjective urinary symptoms (d = -0.32, 95% CI [-0.47, -0.19], p < 0.001, I 2 = 30.3%), but QoL was not statistically significant. A subgroup analysis by intervention type and start time found statistically significant effects on subjective urinary symptoms.
Conclusions: Symptom management interventions had small but statistically significant effects on urinary symptoms. However, the present findings should be interpreted with caution considering the number of studies with limited conclusions.
Implications for cancer survivors: Pre-/post-prostatectomy symptom management intervention may be recommended as a nursing intervention to improve symptom management in prostate cancer survivors. However, more research should be conducted to identify the most effective symptom management intervention.
Keywords: Cancer; Meta-analysis; Oncology; Prostate cancer; Symptom management; Systematic review.