Prostate Cancer Patients Face Many Options, Difficult Decisions
Prostate Cancer Patients Face Many Options, Difficult Decisions
June 27, 2000 -- This year, nearly 200,000 men in the U.S. will face the difficult decision of choosing a treatment option to manage their prostate cancer. To guide them in deciding which therapy is best for them, men often turn to their primary care physicians. Now, results of a new study reinforce why this is such an important step.
"For many men with prostate cancer there's not a treatment of choice, but rather, a choice of treatment," second author of the study Mary McNaughton Collins, MD, MPH, tells WebMD. "The good news for men with prostate cancer is that there's time to get more information and opinions before making a treatment decision." In many other cancers, there's an urgency to get treatment. But for prostate cancer, generally "there is time, and men should take the time to research their options and make the choice that's best for them." Collins is a primary care physician in general internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The significance of the study results, published in this month's Journal of the American Medical Association, is that depending on which specialist a patient visits, the treatment, side effects, and outcome could be different.
In surveys sent to urologists and radiation oncologists -- both specialists who treat prostatecancer -- the researchers found that each prefers the treatment that they provide. In other words, urologists favored removing the prostate through surgery, while radiation oncologists believed that radiation therapy worked just as well.
Current treatment options include surgery, radiation therapy to the prostate, or a technique where tiny devices are actually implanted into the prostate to supply the radiation. But, as the researchers write, "the choice among these therapies is not easy."
While most prostate cancers generally grow slowly and are found in men in their 60s and 70s, early intervention can cure the potentially disabling and deadly disease. In addition to treatment choices, patients and their physicians also need to consider the adverse side effects of the treatment options, which can include sexual dysfunction and incontinence. For these reasons, "the clinical judgment of the physicians who counsel patients can play a critical role in the treatments chosen," write lead researcher Floyd J. Fowler Jr., PhD, and colleagues. Fowler is with the Center for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
Prostate Cancer Patients Face Many Options, Difficult Decisions
June 27, 2000 -- This year, nearly 200,000 men in the U.S. will face the difficult decision of choosing a treatment option to manage their prostate cancer. To guide them in deciding which therapy is best for them, men often turn to their primary care physicians. Now, results of a new study reinforce why this is such an important step.
"For many men with prostate cancer there's not a treatment of choice, but rather, a choice of treatment," second author of the study Mary McNaughton Collins, MD, MPH, tells WebMD. "The good news for men with prostate cancer is that there's time to get more information and opinions before making a treatment decision." In many other cancers, there's an urgency to get treatment. But for prostate cancer, generally "there is time, and men should take the time to research their options and make the choice that's best for them." Collins is a primary care physician in general internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The significance of the study results, published in this month's Journal of the American Medical Association, is that depending on which specialist a patient visits, the treatment, side effects, and outcome could be different.
In surveys sent to urologists and radiation oncologists -- both specialists who treat prostatecancer -- the researchers found that each prefers the treatment that they provide. In other words, urologists favored removing the prostate through surgery, while radiation oncologists believed that radiation therapy worked just as well.
Current treatment options include surgery, radiation therapy to the prostate, or a technique where tiny devices are actually implanted into the prostate to supply the radiation. But, as the researchers write, "the choice among these therapies is not easy."
While most prostate cancers generally grow slowly and are found in men in their 60s and 70s, early intervention can cure the potentially disabling and deadly disease. In addition to treatment choices, patients and their physicians also need to consider the adverse side effects of the treatment options, which can include sexual dysfunction and incontinence. For these reasons, "the clinical judgment of the physicians who counsel patients can play a critical role in the treatments chosen," write lead researcher Floyd J. Fowler Jr., PhD, and colleagues. Fowler is with the Center for Survey Research at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.
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