Decision-Making Processes Of Prostate Cancer Patients

07-06-2006 | Categories:

Prostate Cancer Decisions Often Based on Fallacies
By Nicholas Bakalar
New York Times July 4, 2006
__________________________________

This article describes a study¹ of the processes by which 20 prostate cancer patients chose their course of treatment. Prostate cancer, because of the variety of treatments available and the lack of hard data conclusively indicating which of these treatments is superior, offers an opportune field for this kind of study.

After a urologist made the diagnosis and discussed options with the patients, each was interviewed for 60-90 minutes about their decision-making processes.

Especially striking among the findings were the following:

Nineteen of the 20 patients were influenced in their choice of treatment by experiences of a friend or relative with the disease.
Despite the understanding that prostate cancer was slow-growing and, in some cases, that the cancers were of low histological grade and that the bone and CT scans were negative, 12 of the 20 wanted treatment as soon as possible, and 8 of those were convinced that surgery was the best option.
Those who desired surgery felt that decision was common sense and mistakenly believed that if the tumor was confined to the prostate, the surgery would cure the illness.
Those who chose surgery were confident about this decision and were resistant to consider other options; those who rejected surgery were more willing to consider a variety of treatments.