Analyzing Treatment Effects of Localized Prostate Cancer on Health-Related Quality of Life

Emory University: Prevention Research Center

Topics:
Cancer

Researchers are collaborating with the Southwest Georgia Cancer Coalition and four hospitals with cancer centers and that cover a 33 county area of rural Southwest Georgia. The collaborators will conduct a 3-year study of 300 men (aged 75 years or younger) for whom localized prostate cancer is diagnosed. Participants will be interviewed shortly after diagnosis, again at 6 months, and 1-year after diagnosis. Interviews will be conducted with the patient’s main support person and his main health care provider at 6 months after diagnosis. Interviews will focus on treatment choice (including use of complementary and alternative medicine), treatment adherence, treatment side effects, and perceived quality of life after treatment. Analyses will determine how patients’ personal characteristics and values, as well as the attitudes and influence of family members and physicians, affect treatment choice and how these characteristics, combined with treatment choice, contribute to differences in perceived quality of life after treatment.

 

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