Talking about prostate cancer can be embarrassing for men. Treatments can lead to urinary incontinence or erectile dysfunction, and that makes many patients uncomfortable.
“Often times people feel isolated. They feel like they don't have anyone to talk with,” says Randy Jones, a professor of nursing at UVA. He developed a questionnaire of sorts to promote discussion in the doctor’s office.
“We want to make sure that the patient is in the driver's seat so they can make the right decision for them.”
Treatments usually involves tradeoffs, since they can cause unpleasant side effects and different results. Through a series of questions, the decision aid Jones created helps men and their families to think deeply about their goals in treatment.
“Some men have said that they have a priority of having to live longer to see their daughter have a wedding, or they may feel like they'd like to have their quality of life and not necessarily have to live as long as they can.”
The National Institutes of Health liked the idea so much that it gave UVA $2.2 million dollars to create, test and deploy this decision-making tool. So far, they’ve used it with more than 180 people at UVA, VCU and Johns Hopkins. Patients said it eased anxiety and depression and reduced the chance of regrets
“One caregiver mentioned that this is almost like a marriage counseling tool, where it really opened up their relationships, because she didn't realize what difficulty and challenges her husband was having.”
Jones is now seeking additional funding to test more patients and perhaps make the decision tool available nationwide. He’s also working on ways to adapt it to other forms of cancer.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
