← Return to New research on length of ADT therapy for patients with RT

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Profile picture for northoftheborder @northoftheborder

@chippydoo In many/most countries, doctors don't get paid per visit, so you'd need a different explanation for overtreatment. For example, I'm under the care of my family doctor and my cancer centre. The Ontario government pays my doctor a fixed amount per year for having me on her roster, so she makes the same whether I see her 1x or 20x. The hospital where the cancer centre is located gets baseline funding based on the number of people in the area it serves, and my academic oncologist is likely on salary, so he also doesn't get anything extra for more visits. Yet, to a large extent, we're following the same latest/best practices that you'd see at Mayo, etc. for treating prostate cancer.

@surftohealth88 Perhaps the reason they tend to use overall survival rather than PCa-specific is that many cancer treatments increase the risk of dying from other things (e.g. heart disease, diabetes), so they want to see how the benefits and risks balance out. But it definitely distorts things for younger patients: I mean, there's an elevated chance that an 85-year-old will die of *something* in the next 5 years, with or without prostate cancer, so mixing their overall-survival numbers in with those of people diagnosed in their 40s/50s/60s probably skew things quite a bit.

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Replies to "@chippydoo In many/most countries, doctors don't get paid per visit, so you'd need a different explanation..."

@northoftheborder North I am in the US and we pay by the appointment. More appointments more revenue. Blood work farmed out to a lab and my practice blocks them from giving me my results through my portal so that I have to come in for a $400 3 minute appointment to get a 2 number result 4 times a year. If I BCR again I will be switching from a private practice to a teaching hospital cancer center with a academic provider that is on salary. My wife has received fantastic care there.

To your comment to Surf I feel you are spot on. These drugs don't live rent free inside you . Side effects can take us out eventually. My urology practice won't even discuss that. Another reason to switch to an academic situation with a team approach.

@northoftheborder

Yes- it skews picture for younger patients. I think that AI will help with sorting out all of that massive and "collective" data in near future and help with making personalized protocols and plans. : )