Deciding on best prostate cancer treatment options

Prostate cancer is common in the United States -- in 2009, almost 200,000 men were diagnosed with this type of cancer.  The question that immediately follows the diagnosis is the best treatment option.  You will be confronted with decisions on many options:  surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, medical monitoring, and various combinations?  Searching the internet for answers may just lead to confusion.  A search for information about treating prostate cancer on the internet returns a list of more than 2,600,000 articles. 

There may be help in a new study called Healing Choices for Prostate Cancer.  This study is being conducted by national experts and is designed to help you identify the proper treatment for your own situation.  “If a patient sees a radiologist, one can expect radiation as a recommended treatment. If they see a surgeon, then surgery often leads the list of options. This study offers a neutral platform that explores and explains all the available options and helps patients identify the treatment choice that is best for them," according to one expert involved in the study.

You may be eligible to participate if you have a recent prostate cancer diagnosis and have yet to start treatment.  You need to call a toll-free number and answer a few questions to ensure you qualify. You will then receive information on prostate cancer treatment options. The information will be provided to you either as a printed booklet or in the form of electronic media.  Next, follow-up calls are made to you over the next 9 months. The phone calls are confidential and all 3 calls combined will take approximately 40 minutes.

The phone number to call is 1-866-258-1981 and ask for the Healing Choices for Prostate Cancer study.

If you believe that your cancer should have been diagnosed sooner than it was, click here for more information.