THURSDAY, Sept. 29, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- The Prostate Cancer Foundation and Ali Torre, wife of New York Yankees baseball manager and prostate cancer survivor Joe Torre, are launching a campaign to encourage partners and caregivers of men with prostate cancer to take an active role in their loved ones' treatment decisions.
As part of the "Women Join the TEAM Approach," Ali Torre will encourage prostate cancer patients and their partners and caregivers to seek advice from an integrated team of specialists.
"I learned through my husband's experience with prostate cancer that assembling a full team of medical specialists is crucial in gaining the best possible treatment outcome," Torre said in a prepared statement. "We also learned that our communication and support of each other was our own 'double play' against the disease. Today, I call on the partners and caregivers of men with prostate cancer to become educated, active and join your loved one's health-care team."
Research suggests that the involvement of a partner in health-care decisions can help improve outcomes for prostate cancer survivors.
Women Join the TEAM Approach is part of an ongoing public awareness campaign called the "It's a TEAM Approach - Prostate Cancer Treatment, Education, Awareness and Management," that urges prostate cancer patients and their loved ones to enlist a team of medical specialists.
"The TEAM Approach involving a variety of specialists has become standard in treating other cancers, such as breast, colon and lung cancer. However, prostate cancer treatment has lagged behind other cancers where multidisciplinary teams of physicians collectively guide treatment," Dr. James McKiernan, an assistant professor of urology at Columbia University Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.
"We need to do a better job of educating men with prostate cancer not to wait until their disease has progressed to a late stage to seek the advice of a medical oncologist, and of changing our approach in the management of prostate cancer by combining the specialists early on to benefit the patient," McKiernan said.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about prostate cancer.
