The effects of multidisciplinary team meetings for metastatic prostate cancer management: a single institution experience

Keywords

prostate cancer - multisiciplinary team - management - meeting

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a complex disease with a high incidence and is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men. It has several types of presentation and progression, which makes its management challenging. When metastatic, it has an average five-year survival rate of approximately 29%, which may be even lower depending on the patient's clinical status and tumor behavior. All these characteristics make it necessary to have a broad and dynamic segment of this population, justifying the recommendation and adoption, by several international medical entities, of multidisciplinary meetings as a fundamental part of the treatment for these patients. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact that multidisciplinary meetings, established in 2020, have on the care of patients with metastatic prostate cancer. A single-center retrospective cohort study in which patients were subdivided into two groups according to the date of diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer. The results were obtained through statistical analysis (SPSS version 22.0) of several characteristics, such as: time to consultation with an oncologist, number of patients with complementary therapy to hormone deprivation, time and type of complementary therapy, time until additional therapy (in case of progression), sensitivity status and administration of zoledronic acid in the castration-sensitive phase. A total of 138 patients were included and subdivided according to the date of diagnosis of metastatic PCa - 2018 to 2019 (71) and (2) 2022. There was a reduction in the time to see an oncologist, which used to occur in less than 3 months in only 12.7% of cases and started to occur, in that same time interval, in 74.6% of cases (p < 0.05). Consequently, there was a reduction in the time to complete therapy, the type of medication used was also impacted. These data allow us to infer that the implementation of the multidisciplinary team is a key element in improving the care of patients with metastatic PCa and is essential for the management of the disease.

Corresponding author: Najla Pinheiro Navarros (e-mail: [e-mail]).