Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Best treatment for localized prostate cancer remains unclear
Reuters Health says that current evidence and technology cannot identify the best way to treat localized prostate cancer. Many people spend time looking at past cases to get a sense of which method is right for them. People can also fear certain treatments and risk factors, but what we really should be fearing is the fact that there is no "best way" to treat cancer. Different methods vary for different people, and it is this kind of uncertainty that is the underlying cause for fearing such risks. This is why it is so difficult for cancer patients to decide what kind of treatment they want to undergo if any, and the decision is even harder sincer there is no right way.
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The fact that the success of the various treatment options has not been well established serves to distance the patient from the physician. Patient confidence in the physician is dependent upon, in part, by the physician's demonstration of knowledge / confidence in the particular field. The inability of a physician to recommend a treatment for prostate cancer will almost certainly result in a wary patient. Statistically, a wary patient is less likely to achieve desired results (ie. a fast recovery without complications). It is unfortunate that such treatments will not be thoroughly investigated until 2010.
Do you think the difficulty in choosing which treatment could be in part due to communication? Health communication is an interesting topic, in fact we are going over it right now in my Social Influence class, and part of people's cognition is how they perceive the threats (or risk) of the options presented. If one doctor was busy one day and had to rush through the different treatments for a patient without the means to research them on their own, they may be ill informed and choose an incorrect treatment. Being a Communications major, it is very interesting to look at the the major role that the form of the messages plays on decision making!
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