(UroToday.com) In the Rapid Abstract Session on the first day of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancer Symposium 2022, Dr. Morgans presented the initial results of an international survey of patients with prostate cancer. The goal of this survey was to map patient experiences, expectations, and attitudes, and to identify challenges and unmet needs in diagnosis, therapy patterns, care teams, quality of life (QoL), patient organizations, and resources.
To do so, the authors utilized Don’tBePatient Intelligence to conduct a large survey among patients with non-metastatic (M0) and metastatic (M+) PCa in Germany (DE), the UK and the US between February 9 and April 10, 2021. Don’tBePatient Intelligence collaborated with patient organizations and medical experts to facilitate patient recruitment through social media advertising.
Among 33,882 patients who initially began the survey, 15,824 completed it. This cohort was split nearly exactly evenly between patients in rural (50.1%) and rural (49.9%) areas. Among patients in the United States (M0 and M1: 77%/63%) and Germany (M0 and M1: 77%/58%), prostate cancer diagnosis through health care screening was more common than in the UK (M0 and M1: 42%/21%). Correspondingly, asymptomatic diagnosis was more common among respondents from the UK (M0 and M1: 49%/75%) than in the United States (M0 and M1: 12%/31%) or Germany (M0 and M1: 18%/39%).
For patients diagnosed with non-metastatic disease, prostatectomy was the predominate treatment approach in the United States (57%) and Germany (71%), while radiotherapy was more common (48%) in the UK with lower utilization of radical prostatectomy (41%) in the UK. Chemotherapy was very infrequently received by patients with non-metastatic disease (<1.5%) in all countries.
For those patients diagnosed with metastatic disease, hormone therapy was the most common treatment approach in all countries (Germany 65%; UK 77%; US 73%). Among patients with metastatic disease, chemotherapy use was more frequent in the UK (38%) than Germany (21%) or the United States (27%).
Further, active surveillance was relatively uncommon overall, but was used more commonly in the UK (14%) than in Germany (6%) or the United States (9%).
Across treatment approaches and countries, patients reported generally high (>80%) levels of satisfaction.
Dr. Morgans concluded that these data represent the largest digital survey conducted in patients with prostate cancer. As a result, this allows identification of unmet needs in the patient journey. Ongoing work will assess the impact of differences in patient journey, trust in healthcare professionals, access to information, involvement with patient advocacy groups and quality of life.
Presented by: Alicia K. Morgans, MD, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School