Active surveillance was born as a therapeutic strategy for a well selected group of patients with low risk prostate cancer with the aim to defer or completely avoid the negative impact of secondary effects of curative therapies.
Nevertheless, the patient who chooses this treatment does it at the expense of greater anxiety and doubts about the possible progression of the disease. The main psychological features influencing the quality of life of these patients are, on one hand anxiety, due to the uncertainty and fear to disease progression, and on the other hand, the difficult decision making process. Among the factors that seem to influence the election are: urologist's recommendation, effects on urinary function, age and impact of the therapy on sexual function. In the timorous journey walked, it is recommended to apply psycho-educational programs, with the objective of increasing the perceived control and adaptive confrontation. We propose an intervention with 4 group sessions, the objectives of which would be first to improve the decision making process and diminish the fear to progression and, second to reinforce the information already given at the time of diagnosis and increase the sensation of control, e.g promoting healthy habits.
Written by:
Dominguez Escrig JL, Romero R. Are you the author?
Servicio de Urología y Servicio de Psicología, Fundación Instituto Valenciano de Oncología (I.V.O.) Valencia, España.
Reference: Arch Esp Urol. 2014 Jun;67(5):487-94.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24914848
Article in Spanish.
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