Over the weekend, the American Urological Association (AUA), together with the Society for Urologic Oncology (SUO), and the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) issued new guidance on the treatment of localized prostate cancer. The complete new guidance is already available on line. And one of the named authors of this guidance is a patient (Tony Crispino).
The first piece of good news is that the AUA, SUO, and ASTRO have come together to issue a joint set of guidelines. The “New” Prostate Cancer InfoLink considers this to be an important cooperative effort.
The second piece of good news is that the new guidance is very detailed, including explicit recommendations about the roles of active surveillance, watchful waiting, surgery, various types of radiation therapy, cryotherapy, and even high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). It should be noted that this document does not deal with the treatment of more advanced forms of prostate cancer or secondary/salvage therapy after the failure of first-line therapy.
Now the less good piece of news is that this new guidance is, inevitably, complicated, with a total of 68 specific guidance statements. Making sure that all relevant physicians are brought up to speed on the new guidance will therefore be complicated.
As yet we have not had the opportunity to read trough this entire guidance document in detail. We shall return to this issue later in the week.)
Filed under: Management, Treatment | Tagged: guideline, localized, Treatment |
THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK 
The article link is not working, but I found it by going to Guidelines at the top of the home page.
Sorry. Minor technical issue now fixed.
I’d like to add a few comments. First it was an honor to be a co-author of this document. The panel was not only impressive but also respected my input as well. A note about reading the document statements. I’ve had to clear it up a few times already with the following note on posts online:
***IMPORTANT NOTE***
Each statement is shown at two locations. First there is a straight list of all 68 statements. Later in the guidelines each statement has a discussion “button” that provides additional information on the reasoning behind each guideline statement. I highly recommend reading the entire document including the discussions provided to fully understand the reasoning behind the statement.
Statement 68 was my favorite. Any guesses who may have proposed that one? I can think of a few organizations that will be happy with the discussion points.