ASCO Endorses American Cancer Society Prostate Cancer Survivorship Care Guidelines
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has issued an endorsement of the American Cancer Society's (ACS) Prostate Cancer Survivorship Care Guidelines. These guidelines provide recommendations to primary care physicians on best practices in follow-up care for men after prostate cancer treatment. The guideline endorsement was published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The recommendations include health promotion, prostate cancer surveillance, screening for new cancers, long-term and late functional effects of the disease and its treatment, psychosocial issues, and coordination of care between the survivor's primary care physician and prostate cancer specialist.
Key Recommendations
The guidelines include the following key recommendations:
- Assess information needs related to prostate cancer and its treatment, adverse effects, other health concerns, and available support services and provide or refer survivors to appropriate resources to meet these needs.
- Measure prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level every 6 to 12 months for the first 5 years, then recheck annually thereafter. Prostate cancer specialists may recommend more frequent PSA monitoring during the early survivorship experience for some men, particularly men with higher risk of prostate cancer recurrence and/or men who are able to have additional treatments intended to cure the cancer, such as radiation therapy and/or surgery. The exact schedule for PSA measurement should be determined by both the prostate cancer specialist and primary care physician in collaboration.
- Ensure that survivors with elevated or rising PSA level are evaluated by their primary treating specialist for further follow-up and treatment.
- Adhere to ACS guidelines for screening and early detection of cancer.
- Assess and manage physical and psychosocial effects of prostate cancer and its treatment.
- Annually assess for the presence of long-term or late effects of prostate cancer and its treatment.
The ASCO Endorsement Panel determined that the recommendations from the 2014 ACS Prostate Cancer Survivorship Care Guidelines are clear, thorough, and relevant, despite the limited availability of high-quality evidence to support many of the recommendations. ASCO endorsed the ACS Prostate Cancer Survivorship Care Guidelines with a number of qualifying statements and modifications.
The content in this post has not been reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) and does not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of ASCO®.
