A study to find out what men think is important when making decisions about treatment for prostate cancer (COMPARe study)

Cancer type:

Prostate cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Other

This was a study to learn more about how men made decisions about prostate cancer treatment.

More about this trial

Localised prostate cancer is when the cancer has not grown outside the prostate gland. There are different treatment options for localised prostate cancer. This includes:

Another option is to not start treatment but be closely monitored instead. This is active surveillance.

This is only suitable for men with a low or intermediate risk of their cancer growing.

All the treatments are different. So are the side effects, and how long these are likely to last. Deciding which treatment to have can be difficult. Researchers wanted to learn more about how men with prostate cancer made choices between the treatment options.

In this study, they asked men what was most important to them when deciding between one treatment and another.

Summary of results

Everyone favoured quality of life Open a glossary item over any increase of survival from treatment. The also found a difference in the choices of treatment between men with low or intermediate risk and high risk cancer.

Study design
The study team surveyed 650 men with localised prostate cancer. This was within 1 week of their diagnosis and before they chose their treatment.

In the survey they chose their preferred treatment based on 6 features:

the type of treatment for localised prostate cancer
how long it took to return to normal activities after treatment
the amount of men able to maintain an erection a year after treatment
the amount of men who had no problems controlling passing urine a year after treatment
the amount of men not needing any more treatment 10 to 15 years after initial treatment
the amount of men who survive 10 to 15 years after treatment

Conclusion
The team concluded that all men chose quality of life over increasing their chance of surviving.

They also looked at the men with low risk or intermediate risk prostate cancer. These men also had the option of active surveillance. They concluded that they chose active surveillance rather than treatment.

More detailed information
There is more information about this research in the reference below.

Please note, the summary of this article may not be in plain English. It has been written for health care professionals and researchers.

Journal articles
Evaluating the Trade-Offs Men with Localized Prostate Cancer Make between the Risks and Benefits of Treatments: The COMPARE Study

Verity Watson, Neil McCartan, Nicolas Krucien, Victor Abu, Divine Ikenwilo, Mark Emberton and Hashim U. Ahmedk

Journal of Urology, Vol. 204, 273-280, August 2020

Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on the information in the article above. This has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. We have not analysed the data ourselves. As far as we are aware, the link we list above is active and the summary of the article is free and available to view.