Understanding Sleep Disturbances in Prostate Cancer—A Scientometric Analysis of Sleep Assessment, Aetiology, and Its Impact on Quality of Life

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Prostate cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer in men. It is driven by the male hormone testosterone, and measures used to block testosterone commonly known as hormonal therapy (Androgen Deprivation Therapy—ADT) forms an important treatment in localised and advanced disease. Patients who undergo ADT often experience fatigue and sleep disturbances which can affect quality of life resulting in poor compliance. This review of major publications relating to prostate cancer and sleep sought to gain an understanding of the methods used for sleep assessment and the magnitude of effect that ADT has on sleep. It highlights a lack of objective assessments, especially at baseline before ADT is commenced. It is recommended that future studies should employ a variety of methods for identifying and quantifying sleep disturbances. Implementing such methodology of assessment in future trials will help determine the impact that novel and established treatment will have on sleep quality. ABSTRACT: Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United Kingdom. While androgen-deprivation therapy is the most common treatment for prostate cancer, patients undergoing this treatment typically experience side effects in terms of sleep disturbances. However, the relation between prostate cancer and sleep and the way in which sleep interventions may benefit oncological patients is underinvestigated in the literature. The current study aims to review in a data-driven approach the existing literature on the field of prostate cancer and sleep to identify impactful documents and major thematic domains. To do so, a sample of 1547 documents was downloaded from Scopus, and a document co-citation analysis was conducted on CiteSpace software. In the literature, 12 main research domains were identified as well as 26 impactful documents. Research domains were examined regarding the link between prostate cancer and sleep, by taking into account variations in hormonal levels. A major gap in the literature was identified in the lack of use of objective assessment of sleep quality in patients with prostate cancer.