Team Approach Urged in Prostate Cancer Treatment
By: Ronald Roberts
An estimated 230,000 American men will be diagnosed with
prostate cancer in 2005 - enough to fill a baseball stadium four or
five times. But research shows that a partner's involvement in
health care decisions is positively associated with better outcomes
for prostate cancer patients.
Ali Torre, wife of legendary baseball manager and prostate cancer
survivor Joe Torre, knows firsthand the important role that family
members play in helping a person with prostate cancer make
treatment decisions.
"I learned through my husband's experience with prostate cancer
that assembling a multidisciplinary team of medical specialists,
including a urologist, a radiation oncologist and a medical
oncologist, is the best way to ensure that all treatment options
are fully explored."
Torre is partnering with the Prostate Cancer Foundation on a new
program called Women Join the TEAM Approach: Prostate Cancer
Treatment, Education, Awareness and Management. The campaign urges
partners and caregivers of men with prostate cancer to become
active in their loved ones' treatment decisions.
In particular, the program encourages men with prostate cancer to
seek the advice of an integrated team of health care specialists to
best determine a course of action for the disease. A TEAM Approach
has become standard in treating other cancers, such as breast,
colon and lung cancer, but this is currently not the case in
prostate cancer.
The combined expertise of various prostate cancer specialists can
help men explore all available treatment options to decide upon the
best course of treatment.
Research has also shown that partners may enhance the quality of
decision-making by gathering information, helping the patient to
ask questions, or helping advise them about treatment
decisions.
Torre's goal is to help partners and caregivers learn from her
experiences in supporting loved ones with prostate cancer. Through
not only her husband's, but also her father's prostate cancer
diagnosis and treatment, Torre became acutely aware of the vital
role she played in their health care decisions.
"Prostate cancer treatment has lagged behind other cancers where
multidisciplinary teams of physicians collectively guide
treatment," said Dr. James McKiernan, Assistant Professor of
Urology at Columbia University Medical Center and Attending
Physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia and a
spokesman for the Women Join the TEAM Approach program.
"We need to do a better job of educating men with prostate cancer
not to wait until their disease has progressed to a late stage to
seek the advice of a medical oncologist, and of changing our
approach in the management of prostate cancer by combining the
specialists early on to benefit the patient."
For a list of tips for partners and caregivers and additional information about Women Join the TEAM Approach, log on to www.prostatecancerfoundation .org or call 1-877-MEN-7877. Women Join the TEAM Approach is a collaborative initiative between the Prostate Cancer Foundation and sanofi-aventis. This awareness program is sponsored by sanofi-aventis. - NU
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