Prostate Cancer Treatment Regret Seminar - 6 April, 2022

Christopher Wallis, MD, PhD, spoke on April 6, 2022 to the First Wednesday meeting of AnCan’s Virtual Active Surveillance Support Group about decisional regret, a common phenomenon patients experience after making their choices for treating their prostate cancers. Wallis, of the University of Toronto, found in his research that about 13% of patients with localized disease overall have second thoughts about their choices. This includes patients on active surveillance. The surgical group had the most reset followed by radiation and AS. “Every choice has risks and benefits. The goal isn’t just to cure the disease but to live a better quality of life,” Wallis said. He said that in counseling patients, one of his challenges is that there is not “a perfect correlation between symptoms and disease.” In other words, some patients are OK with losing their sexual potency—a major concern—while others are devastated. Some have similar reactions to incontinence. “Patient-centered care improves outcomes,” he observed. Walis said long-term, “financial toxicity” from treatment also is a largely unexplored topic. To view the program, go to:    / @ancanfoundation