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Independent urologists provide the same quality of care for men on active surveillance (AS) for prostate cancer as urologists in largely academic settings, compared with prior studies, according to research presented at LUGPA’s 2019 annual meeting in Chicago.
“Even in the real world, people on active surveillance are getting equivalent, guideline-appropriate management,” said Jeremy B. Shelton, MD, MSHS, a urologist in Los Angeles who updated attendees on the study.
Creating the cohort
The LUGPA active surveillance project, which is supported by an unrestricted grant from Genomic Health, Inc., was designed to assess the quality of care that AS patients receive from independent urologists.
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From 2013 to 2014, a research team led by Dr. Shelton and Neal D. Shore, MD, recruited nine LUGPA practices from across the country to participate in the study. In less than 2 years, the team accrued a large cohort of 557 AS patients treated by independent urologists that could be compared with large academic cohorts.
“In very short order, we made a very large, robust, contemporary cohort, which I think speaks to the opportunity of partnerships between researchers and community providers,” Dr. Shelton said.
