WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Men with low-risk prostate cancer are more likely to pursue active surveillance when seen at a multidisciplinary prostate cancer clinic rather than when they see individual specialists in sequential settings, according to a study published online July 30 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

To examine the factors associated with active surveillance in patients with low-risk prostate cancer, Ayal A. Aizer, M.D., M.H.S., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues conducted a study involving 701 men who were either treated at a multidisciplinary prostate cancer clinic with a team consisting of an urologist and radiation and medical oncologists, or who saw individual specialists sequentially.

The researchers found the crude rates of active surveillance to be almost double for those seen in the multidisciplinary clinic compared with those seen by individual physicians (43 versus 22 percent), while the proportion treated with prostatectomy or radiation therapy was reduced by about 30 percent. The pursuit of active surveillance was significantly associated with consultation at a multidisciplinary clinic (odds ratio [OR], 2.15), older age (OR, 1.09), unmarried status (OR, 1.66), increased Charlson comorbidity index (OR, 1.37), and fewer positive cores (OR, 0.92).

"In conclusion, our study indicates that multidisciplinary care is associated with a significantly increased rate of active surveillance in men with low-risk prostate cancer, a finding that may have an important clinical, social, and economic impact," the authors write.

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