© 2005 Oxford University Press
EDITORIAL |
Employment After Therapy for Localized Prostate Cancer: Widening the Perspective
Correspondence to: James A. Talcott, MD, SM, Center for Outcomes Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, HO1-107, 55 Fruit St., Boston, MA 02114-2696 (e-mail: jtalcott@partners.org).
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
From the traditional biological perspective, medical therapy is judged by its effects on survival or other indicators related to pathophysiology, such as growth or shrinkage of cancer masses. More recently, investigators have broadened their assessments of medical interventions (and conditions). So-called outcomes research explicitly recognizes that chronic diseases and their treatments may affect patients' lives in ways other than causing symptoms, organ dysfunction, and death. They may also impair patients' ability to perform activities of daily living, continue their usual social roles and interactions, and preserve their economic condition—each a plausible aspect of health-related quality of life.
A rapidly progressing cancer's ability to wreak havoc on virtually all aspects of patients' lives is widely appreciated. However, although measuring these consequences might influence public policy choices, the results would rarely affect clinical decisions. Patients