Age, race may affect Tx decision regret in prostate cancer

(HealthDay)—Age, race, and other factors may influence treatment decisional regret among men with prostate cancer, according to research published online March 3 in Cancer.

Bonny B. Morris, M.S.P.H., B.S.N., R.N., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues identified potential predictors of decisional regret in a population-based cohort of 348 African-American men and 446 Caucasian men at approximately three years after the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

The researchers found that 12 percent of the participants experienced treatment decisional regret. Factors associated with decisional regret included androgen deprivation therapy (odds ratio [OR], 2.1), recent urinary bother (OR, 3.4), satisfaction with understanding potential side effects of treatment (very unsatisfied: OR, 13.3; somewhat unsatisfied: OR, 5.0; neutral: OR, 3.8), and treatment effect on the spousal relationship (very affected: OR, 3.9; somewhat affected: OR, 3.1; neutral: OR, 2.4). Among African-American patients, younger men were more likely to experience regret than older men (OR, 3.0). Older African-American patients were less likely to experience regret than older Caucasian patients (OR, 0.2).

"To our knowledge, this is the first study with sufficient power to examine racial differences in prostate cancer treatment decisional regret," the authors write.

One author disclosed financial ties to Accuray.