Assessment of American urologists' approach to hormonal management of prostate cancer

To examine how American urologists are treating patients with prostate cancer who may benefit from hormonal therapy. Hormonal therapy has been shown to improve survival in patients with prostate cancer in an increasing number of clinical situations.

Questionnaires consisting of four case scenarios were sent to 1000 randomly selected American urologists. We compared the responses to the questionnaires with the current best evidence as guided by well-designed randomized controlled trials.

Of the 181 urologists who responded, only 35% of questions were answered correctly according to evidence-based data. Thirteen percent of respondents answered more than two questions correctly. The number of years spent in practice, the type of practice, and the number of men treated with hormonal therapy did not affect the results.

The results of our study have shown that in a select group of clinical scenarios regarding the use of hormonal therapy for prostate cancer, urologists infrequently chose the treatment option that reflects the results of randomized controlled trials.