A five-year follow-up study of more than 2000 US men who received prostate cancer treatment is creating a road map for future patients regarding long-term bowel, bladder and sexual function to clarify expectations and enable men to make informed choices about care.
It is a multi-site research study conducting long-term follow-up on men who were diagnosed with localised prostate cancer between 2011 and 2012.
The five-year results provide evidence on outcomes with radiation, surgery or active surveillance in patients of all ages and ethnicities.
“We are providing information about the side effects of different treatments for prostate cancer that men and their providers can use to make treatment decisions,” said senior author Daniel Barocas.
“However, we have only illuminated one facet of a complex decision. There is more to a treatment decision than just the side effects, the most obvious being the effectiveness of the treatment, and that is something we hope to be able to demonstrate as we are now funded to look at 10-year cancer outcomes.”
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