Shared Decision-Making and Cardiovascular Complications of Androgen Deprivation Therapy: an Educational Initiative for Oncology Team Members in Colorado, USA

Patients with prostate cancer may experience side effects of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) such as cardiovascular (CV) complications. Oncology team members should actively communicate with patients about these complications. On the other hand, shared decision-making (SDM) has been shown to improve patient-physician communication. We developed brochures focused on CV complications of ADT and SDM. We proceeded to deliver these brochures to participating oncology offices and then carried out a survey of team members in these offices. We obtained responses from 31 oncology team members. Our survey revealed that about half of the participants (48%) rarely applied SDM in their oncology practice, and only about one-third (32%) sometimes applied SDM. After reading our brochures, the majority of respondents could correctly answer questions about SDM and CV complications of ADT. Improvement in scores after reading our materials was significant for both CV complications of ADT and SDM (e.g., CV complications of ADT: z = 6.153, p-value < 0.001, and SDM z = 6.456, p-value < 0.001). Implementation of SDM and an improved awareness of the CV complications of ADT can lead to significant benefits. It is therefore important to take steps to further raise such implementation and awareness among oncology team members in other geographic locations and clinical settings.