Early Localized Prostate Cancer: Nurses Can Help Men Weigh Diagnostic, Treatment Options
By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor
A new diagnosis of prostate cancer can be daunting. Nurses play an increasingly important role in helping men and their partners find their way through the maze of available information and choices. One of the two March CE feature articles in AJN, “Early Localized Prostate Cancer,” gives a thorough overview of tests and treatments.
The author, Anne Katz, is a certified sexuality counselor at CancerCare Manitoba, a clinical nurse specialist at the Manitoba Prostate Centre, and a faculty member in the College of Nursing at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, and Athabasca University, Alberta, Canada. She is also the editor of Oncology Nursing Forum. Writes Katz:
. . . as many as 233,000 men in the United States are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, 60% of whom are ages 65 or older. Most diagnoses are low grade and localized . . . . Since low-grade, localized prostate cancer is slow growing and rarely lethal, even in the absence of intervention, it can be difficult for men to make treatment decisions after diagnosis—particularly if they do not understand the nuanced pathology results they receive and the potential for treatment to result in long-term adverse effects that can profoundly affect quality of life.
The article discusses options for intervention, potential adverse effects associated with each option, and, crucially, the nurse’s “role in helping men […]
