Systematic counseling and rates of acceptance of active surveillance

According to a newly published paper in European Urology, a simple, hour-long lecture and training session can improve the ability of physicians to counsel patients systematically about active sureveillance and, at one major center, improved patient acceptance of active surveillance by as much as 17 percent.

This new paper by Ehdaie et al. discusses the development and implementation of a systematic method by which physicians can and potentially should counsel patients with very low- and low-risk prostate cancer to increase acceptance of active surveillance. The approach is based on the use of “framing techniques” that underlie principles of communication studies by negotiation scholars. The goal was to find ways to overcome perceived difficulties experienced by physicians in convincing newly diagnosed, low-risk prostate cancer patients about the merits of active surveillance and thus to avoid the tendency of many patients to unnecessarily elect immediate radical treatment for low-risk forms of prostate…