BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - This case report highlights the need to go beyond the efficacy of a given treatment when it´s proposed to a certain patient. The adverse effects, in the long-term, may ultimately lead to repentance regarding treatment choice. At a time where the effectiveness of the treatment of prostate cancer is challenged daily, it makes sense to stop and think about the adverse effects, and to consider them as a constant and not just a mere possibility when we are choosing the best therapeutic strategy.
The patient from this report now refuses any other option or strategy to try to improve his quality of life (QoL), and he keeps telling us he would rather die with the disease than without it, but with no QoL.The bladder outlet obstruction that can occur after prostate cancer treatment can be challenging and even more challenging than the urinary stress incontinence itself, although not so frequent.
So there is a long way to go in order to offer our patients the best solution, but above all, primum non nocere...Hippocratic Oath.
Written by:
João Pedro Peralta, MD as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com. This initiative offers a method of publishing for the professional urology community. Authors are given an opportunity to expand on the circumstances, limitations etc... of their research by referencing the published abstract.
Urology Resident
Dept. of Urology
Portuguese Institute of Oncology of Coimbra
Portugal
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