Not only “objective” response criteria, but also subjective criteria, such as therapy-induced
side effects and quality of life have to be considered in the treatment of superficial
bladder carcinoma. For this reason, a prospective survey of satisfaction with life
and side effects of therapy was performed in a group of patients receiving intravesical
BCG immunotherapy. The symptoms occurring during a sixweek instillation course were
recorded daily by the patients on an appropriate questionnaire. Satisfaction with
life was assessed before, during and after the treatment course by means of an additional
questionnaire. A high degree of satisfaction with life, insignificantly impaired by
intravesical therapy with BCG, was observed in this patient group. The occurrence
and course of local symptoms could be wellcharacterized by frequent use of the side
effects questionnaire. Side effects and satisfaction with life correlated to a high
degree. We can conclude that the assessment of satisfaction with life and side efects
of therapy by the described methods could improve comparability of clinical studies
on super-ficial bladder carcinoma as well as evaluation of local symptoms during intravesical
treatment.
Key words:
Bladder carcinoma - Intravesical therapy - Bacillus Calmette-Guérin - Quality of life
- Side effects
