Purpose: Due to the complexity of factors that must be considered when choosing a therapy for prostate cancer, we hypothesized that many men will find that certain factors such as side effects gain or lose importance after therapy relative to their expectations before therapy.
Materials and methods: We conducted a prospective survey of men deciding on a therapy for local stage prostate cancer in 3 geographic regions. Men were asked to rate the importance of 11 personal factors before starting therapy and again 6 months after therapy.
Results: Among 448 eligible men completing the most common treatment options, overall satisfaction with treatment choice was high across all therapies. While most men changed rankings of importance in at least 1 of the 11 factors, the majority of pre-post evaluations were highly consistent. In adjusted analyses the 2 factors that emerged as significantly underappreciated for all major prostate cancer treatments were 1) the impact of treatment on usual daily activities, and 2) the recommendations of friends and relatives who were affected with prostate cancer.
Conclusions: Initial patient expectations of the importance of the majority of factors related to prostate cancer treatment are generally accurate. Better counseling may improve the accuracy of patient expectations of the personal burden of treatment, and their evaluation of the advice of affected friends and relatives.
Copyright (c) 2010 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.