Trial NTR1334What's known on the subject? and What does the study add?• Many patients are eligible for more than one treatment option for prostate cancer. In usual care, urologists have a large influence on the treatment choice. Decision aids, providing balanced information on the pros and cons of different treatment options, improve the match between patient preferences and treatment received.• In men eligible for both surgery and external beam radiotherapy, treatment choice differed by hospital. Across the participating hospitals, the decision aid consistently led to fewer patients remaining undecided on their treatment preference and more patients choosing brachytherapy.
Objectives• To examine the treatment choice for localized prostate cancer in selected men who were eligible for both prostatectomy and radiotherapy.• To examine whether increased patient participation, using a decision aid, affected the treatment choice.
Patients and Methods• From 2008 to 2011, 240 patients with localized prostate cancer were enrolled from three separate hospitals.• They were selected to be eligible for both prostatectomy and external beam radiotherapy. Brachytherapy was a third option for about half of the patients.• In this randomized controlled trial, patients were randomized to a group which only discussed their treatment with their specialist (usual care group) and a group which received additional information from a decision aid presented by a researcher (decision aid group). The decision aid was based on a literature review.• Predictors of treatment choice were examined.