Study examines prostate cancer care satisfaction for patients and spouses
Advances in the early detection and treatment of prostate cancer is enabling men to live longer than any time in the past
Date: 10/22/2004
BIDMC Contact: Jerry Berger
Phone: 617-667-7308
BOSTON – Advances in the early detection and treatment of prostate cancer is enabling men to live longer than any time in the past. A clinical research study underway at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and five other leading prostate cancer referral centers around the country is trying to determine the quality of that extra time for both patient and spouse or partner.
The PROST-QA Consortium seeks to create an in-depth profile of the experiences of 1,800 prostate cancer patients and their spouses through the entire process of prostate cancer treatment and consequent quality of life effects. Unlike previous studies, which have focused principally on either cancer control or quality of life effects, but not both, among patients treated for prostate cancer, this new study aims to look at the entire spectrum of prostate cancer treatment outcomes, including cancer control, quality of life, and overall satisfaction among patients as well their spouses-partners with the entire process of care and its outcome.
The study is the first national study to measure prostate cancer patients’ and their spouse-partners’ satisfaction with the manner and skill of their cancer physician, and the first that enables patients and their partners to weigh the relative importance of cancer control and treatment side effects in determining their satisfaction with the overall outcome of treatment.
“A spouse can often have a more discerning perspective about the overall experience that may complement that of the man who is going through the treatment,” says Martin Sanda, M.D., the principal investigator and director of BIDMC’s newly established Prostate Cancer Care Center. “This study examines, for the first time, the perspective of both the patient and, in the spouse, of someone who is intimately involved throughout the cancer treatment process despite not physically going through the treatment.”
The trial mirrors a major shift in emphasis among care providers to not only reduce cancer deaths but to also optimize the quality of cancer survival. While the study will measure quality of life factors including sexual, rectal, and urinary side effects, it will also look at the cancer control process itself and the patients and spouses satisfaction with all elements of the prostate caner treatment process and outcome.
Patients receiving prostate cancer treatment at BIDMC, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Clinic, Washington University in St. Louis, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and UCLA are eligible to enroll. Participants are surveyed by telephone interview, a change in methodology that Sanda hopes will increase the quantity and quality of data collected. The study is the largest ongoing national study of quality of life after prostate cancer treatment funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Patients eligible for the study include men with early stage prostate cancer who have decided to undergo surgical or radiation-based treatment for their cancer, and their spouses or partners. Those interested in participating can contact Dr. Sanda or Tammi Casagni, the study coordinator, at the Prostate Cancer Care Center, 617-667-2960.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a major patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and ranks third in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is clinically affiliated with the Joslin Diabetes Center and is a research partner of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.harvard.edu.
