PC specialists favor their specialty treatment

This study, published this week, confirms the general wisdom of this board -- doctors favor those PC treatments which they perform. The lesson: learn a lot -- get multiple opinions.

archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/170/5/440?home

"Overall, 42 309 men (50%) were seen exclusively by urologists, 37 540 (44%) by urologists and radiation oncologists, 2329 (3%) by urologists and medical oncologists, and 2910 (3%) by all 3 specialists. There was a strong association between the type of specialist seen and primary therapy received."

"Conclusions Specialist visits relate strongly to prostate cancer treatment choices. In light of these findings, prior evidence that specialists prefer the modality they themselves deliver and the lack of conclusive comparative studies demonstrating superiority of one modality over another, it is essential to ensure that men have access to balanced information before choosing a particular therapy for prostate cancer."

Arch Intern Med. 2010;170(5):440-450.

As someone who is going through the treatment selection stage right now, I would agree with title of this thread.  And generally it is not surprising.  I think what is important though is that anyone reputable offering you treatment should provide you with good statistics regarding their specialty.  When I met with a radiation oncologist recently she certainly urged me to consider her offering.  Additionally she provided a Nomogram... not sure how well known this is...

http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/10088.cfm

When we input my numbers the calculator painted a pretty good picture, except for the rate of being recurrence free in 10 years.  57% seemed like not a great number to me and started me thinking about surgery again.  

She was pretty straight forward and said, if you don't like those odds you need to do some more investigation, which I thought was a very professional approach.