Many men diagnosed with prostate cancer (PC) will experience physical and psychosocial late effects of treatment. Their interest/preferences for receiving information about addressing common sequelae is not well understood. We examined long-term PC survivors' level of interest, whether this differed based upon symptomatology, and their preferred coping information source.
N=615 PC survivors (3-8 years post-diagnosis) completed a survey on physical and psychological health and their information interests and preferences related to late effects of cancer treatment.
Over half of PC survivors reported interest in information about late effects of treatment or sexual health, while approximately a quarter were interested in emotional health information. Survivors preferred to receive information about late effects of treatment from their oncologists, sexual health information from their primary care providers (PCP), oncologist, or written/online resources, and emotional health information from their PCP. Information needs were more commonly reported among men with poorer domain-specific health functioning.
Long-term PC survivors report significant interest in receiving information about their physical, sexual, and emotional health.
Medical providers caring for these men should inquire about survivors' information needs and future intervention efforts should consider who delivers the information, dependent upon the type of dysfunction reported.
Patient education and counseling. 2016 Jul 14 [Epub ahead of print]
Eric S Zhou, Sharon L Bober, Larissa Nekhlyudov, Jim C Hu, Philip W Kantoff, Christopher J Recklitis
Perini Family Survivors' Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: ., Perini Family Survivors' Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: ., Perini Family Survivors' Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: ., Department of Urology, Weill Cornell Medical Center, 1300 York Avenue, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: ., Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 600 Third Avenue, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: ., Perini Family Survivors' Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: .