OBJECTIVES: @entity263 will account for 334,500 new cases and 41,800 @entity204 among @entity1 in the United States in 1997. @entity1 and physicians are faced with many concerns related to benefits and side effects of alternative treatments, educational needs, emotional support, and costs of care. Support groups for @entity263 @entity1 have been established to help satisfy needs in these areas. Therefore, we addressed three issues among @entity1 who belong to a @entity263 support group as well as among a second group of urologists who treat @entity263 : (1) goals for @entity263 treatment, (2) information that is given and recalled about the disease and therapy, and (3) extent to which educational and emotional needs are being met. METHODS: Random telephone surveys were made of 1000 @entity1 with @entity263 who belong to the @entity263 support group US TOO, the @entity263 support group in the United States, and 200 urologists who provide care to @entity1 with @entity263 . The surveys were conducted by the Louis Harris _ Associates survey research firm. RESULTS: About four fifths of @entity1 and urologists prefer aggressive therapy for @entity263 . @entity1 goals with therapy included preservation of quality of life (45%), extension of life (29%), and delaying disease progression (13%), whereas physicians overwhelmingly focused on treatment efficacy (86%), with side effects (43%) and costs (29%) being secondary considerations. Urologists and @entity1 differed markedly in the description of the @entity1 -physician discussion. Whereas almost 100% of physicians stated that they always discussed important considerations such as options for no therapy, life expectancy with and without therapy, @entity1 preferences, costs, and changes in sexual function, only about one fifth of @entity1 recalled similar discussions. @entity1 and physicians both believed that physicians were an excellent source of educational support, but often did not report provision of emotional support. Although support groups were viewed as good providers of educational and emotional support by 85% to 90% of @entity1 , physicians appeared to underestimate the benefit of support groups in these areas. CONCLUSIONS: @entity1 who belong to US TOO have many emotional and educational needs that are not currently being fulfilled by physicians. Although the goals of therapy are viewed similarly by @entity1 and physicians, much of the important @entity5 - and treatment-related information that physicians report they have provided is not recalled by @entity1 . Policy makers would be wise to devise systematic strategies such as shared decision-making tools and better linkages to support groups to ensure that @entity1 ' needs are being met.

Comparison of perspectives on XXXX : analyses of survey data.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['Patients', 'patients', 'patient', 'Patient', 'men'] @entity204 :: ('MESH:D003643', 'Disease') :: ['deaths'] @entity263 :: ('MESH:D011471', 'Disease') :: ['largest prostate cancer', 'prostate cancer', 'Prostate cancer'] @entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['cancer']
@entity263 :: (MESH:D011471,Disease) :: ['prostate cancer']
