Opinions from the experts: exploring what prostate cancer patients should know about post-operative radiotherapy

The present study investigated health professionals' opinions about important questions that should be discussed with patients who may require post-prostatectomy radiotherapy. A 74-question survey was conducted among radiation oncologists, urologists, nurses, and radiation therapists involved in the care of prostate cancer patients. Survey questions covered six domains: understanding my situation and prostate cancer diagnosis, making a decision, radiotherapy: procedures involved, potential benefits, side effects, and my support network during radiation treatment. Respondents rated the importance of addressing these questions as either essential, important, no opinion, or avoid with a hypothetical post-prostatectomy case. The majority of questions were rated as either essential or important. There was disagreement between professions on essential questions, mostly between nurses and urologists in the side-effects domain. There was agreement between all professions regarding which questions should be avoided.