Satisfaction with nurse-led telephone follow up for low to intermediate risk prostate cancer patients treated with radical radiotherapy. A comparative study Mary Leahy a , Meinir Krishnasamy a, b, * , Alan Herschtal c , Mathias Bressel c , Tracey Dryden a, b , Keen Hun Tai d , Farshad Foroudi d a Division of Nursing, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia b Department of Nursing and Supportive Care Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia c Centre for Biostatistics and Clinical Trials, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia d Uro-Oncology Service, Division of Radiation Oncology and Cancer Imaging, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia Keywords: Nurse-led services Prostate cancer Telephone follow up Patient satisfaction abstract Purpose of the research: As the number of men living with prostate cancer is increasing worldwide, the requirement for follow up care also grows. This study was undertaken to evaluate nurse-led, telephone follow up, for men with low to intermediate risk prostate cancer treated with radical radiotherapy when compared with medical follow up. Methods and sample: A non-randomized, two-cohort, comparative study. 169 men diagnosed with prostate cancer were recruited from outpatient clinics at a tertiary cancer centre in Australia. 83 men were recruited to cohort 1 (control) (51 low to intermediate risk; 32 high risk) and 86 to cohort 2 (intervention) (51 low to intermediate risk; 35 high risk). High risk patients, regardless of cohort, received medical follow up. Low to intermediate risk patients in cohort 2 were triaged to nurse-led review for their six month review appointment. Nurse-led follow up consisted of six monthly tele- phone consultations and PSA testing. Measures: Participants completed the Satisfaction with Consultation Scale, the Brief Distress Ther- mometer and the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite. Key results: There was no statistically significant difference in patient satisfaction on any of the study measures between the nurse-led and standard medical follow up at six months following treatment completion. However, where there was a trend towards significance (p ¼ 0.051), it favoured the nurse-led follow up regimen. Conclusions: Nurse-led telephone consultation provides an acceptable model of follow-up for men diagnosed with low to intermediate risk prostate cancer. Multi-centre randomised controlled trials are needed to support the efficacy of nurse-led, telephone follow up services. Crown Copyright Ó 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Background In 2010, over 200,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer worldwide (American Cancer Society, 2010). With increases in incidence and prevalence of the disease due to improvements in early detection and treatments in Western countries, the number of people requiring follow up care is increasing (Haas et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2007). Consequently, traditional models of out- patient based medical follow up are increasingly constrained in their ability to comprehensively address the supportive care and survivorship needs of men diagnosed with prostate cancer (Beaver and Luker, 2005) and, evidence indicates that men experience considerable unmet need with regard to information provision and emotional support, particularly with regard to sexuality and psychological concerns (Badger et al., 2011; Smith et al., 2007; Steginga et al., 2000). Localised prostate cancer can be divided into low risk, inter- mediate risk and high risk cancers based on the pre treatment PSA, biopsy Gleason Score and clinical T stage (D’Amico et al., 1998). Generally low to intermediate risk patients are treated with radiotherapy alone. Patients with high risk disease have the addi- tion of androgen deprivation to radical radiotherapy based on a survival benefit in these high risk patients (Bolla et al., 2002). However androgen deprivation is reserved for this high risk group * Corresponding author. Department of Nursing and Supportive Care Research, St Andrew’s Place, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Locked Bag 1 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne, Victoria 8006, Australia. Tel.: þ61 3 9656 5820; fax: þ61 3 9656 1901. E-mail address: meinir.krishnasamy@petermac.org (M. Krishnasamy). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect European Journal of Oncology Nursing journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ejon 1462-3889/$ e see front matter Crown Copyright Ó 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ejon.2012.04.003 European Journal of Oncology Nursing 17 (2013) 162e169