The present study investigated health professionals' opinions about important questions that should be discussed with patients who may require post-prostatectomy radiotherapy.
A 74-question survey was conducted among radiation oncologists, urologists, nurses, and radiation therapists involved in the care of prostate cancer patients. Survey questions covered six domains: understanding my situation and prostate cancer diagnosis, making a decision, radiotherapy: procedures involved, potential benefits, side effects, and my support network during radiation treatment. Respondents rated the importance of addressing these questions as either essential, important, no opinion, or avoid with a hypothetical post-prostatectomy case. The majority of questions were rated as either essential or important. There was disagreement between professions on essential questions, mostly between nurses and urologists in the side-effects domain. There was agreement between all professions regarding which questions should be avoided.
Written by:
D'Alimonte L, Koo K, Chen E, Feldman-Stewart D, Court A, Fitch M, Di Prospero L, Maamoun J, Kiss A, Szumacher E. Are you the author?
Department of Radiation Therapy, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Reference: J Cancer Educ. 2013 Jun 23. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1007/s13187-013-0494-9
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23793963
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