A review of measurement of patient preferences for treatment outcomes after prostate cancer.

The diagnosis of early-stage prostate cancer cases creates dilemmas for many men diagnosed with the disease each year. Treatment interventions are all associated with significant treatment morbidity, including impotence and incontinence. The basic concept behind patient preferences, or utilities, is to ask patients to make judgments about the value of particular health outcomes. Several preference-based instruments are available, including the visual analog rating scale, the time trade-off utility assessment, and the standard gamble. These assessments result in scores or weights assigned to different health states. From the perspective of the patient with prostate cancer, the treatment that produces optimal outcomes will depend on the relative importance of several domains, which may include pain, urinary functioning, sexual functioning, and general physical health. Patients with similar diagnoses and overlapping clinical characteristics may have markedly different preferences for treatment outcomes.