Multidisciplinary care and management selection in prostate cancer

The management of prostate cancer is complicated by the multitude of treatment options, the lack of proven superiority of one modality of management, and the presence of physician bias. Care at a multidisciplinary prostate cancer clinic offers patients the relative convenience of consultation with physicians of multiple specialties within the confines of a single visit and appears to serve as a venue in which patients can be counseled regarding the risks and benefits of available therapies in an open and interactive environment. Physician bias may be minimized in such an environment, and patient satisfaction rates are high. Available data suggest that low-risk patients who are seen at a multidisciplinary prostate cancer clinic appear to select active surveillance in greater proportion. However, relatively few studies have investigated the other added value that multidisciplinary clinics provide to the patient or health care system, and therefore, additional studies assessing the impact of multidisciplinary care in the management of patients with prostate cancer are needed.