Prostate Cancer Survivorship Experience: Patient Reported Outcome Measures and Focus Group Results
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Introduction: There are an ever increasing number of prostate cancer survivors.These patients are currently followed up in secondary care.Focus of care is on recurrence and acute management, not holistic care.Method: Over a 3 year period, patients attending follow-up appointments having completed treatment for organ confined prostate cancer and satisfying entry criteria were offered to join the programme.This comprises a database for PSA tracking and holistic assessment of patient needs run by a specialist nurse.The programme is supplemented by a Survivorship conference once a year, where patients have access to healthcare professionals discussing a range of topics related to prostate cancer.We assess patient satisfaction with questionnaires both pre and post conference and with a focus group in order to develop recommendations for the programme.Results: We currently have 178 on the database 55 patients and friends visited the conference, with the majority specifying they would re-attend.The majority also ranked the conference as worthwhile re-attending.After the conference, we demonstrate patient concern decreases, with disease control and understanding increasing.We also show patients prefer the community based follow-up scheme, as opposed to a hospital based follow up.Conclusion: Survivorship care has yet to be developed fully in clinical practice; this paper demonstrates how we can do this as part of a co-led approach with patients.
Source: Journal of Universal Surgery
Authors: Sanchia S Goonewardene, V Nanton, A Young, R Persad, David G
Language: English
Topic: Cancer survivorship and care
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2600315337