Treatment-Related Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Prostate Cancer: Patients' Real-World Insights for Optimizing Outcomes.

Abstract

Cognitive impairment (CI) is an issue that needs to be at the forefront of unmet healthcare needs in patients with prostate cancer (PCa) as it can negatively impact quality of life during long-term care. CI in patients with prostate cancer is thought to be influenced by treatment, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), and novel androgen receptor (AR) pathway inhibitors in particular; however, current understanding is limited on how treatment affects cognition. Additionally, the experience of patients with CI who are receiving PCa treatment is not well understood or represented in clinical literature, which is a barrier to optimal patient outcomes in managing prostate cancer treatment-related cognitive impairment (PCa-TRCI). To help understand the patient journey and elucidate management gaps in PCa-TRCI, an international roundtable of healthcare provider and patient panelists was convened. The panelists focused on four key topic areas: (1) the patient experience when afflicted with, or at risk of, PCa-TRCI, (2) the physical, emotional, and social impact of CI on patients' quality of life (QoL), (3) the challenges that patients with PCa-TRCI face, and their impact on clinical decision-making, and (4) ways in which managing PCa-TRCI should evolve to improve patient outcomes. The purpose of the roundtable was to include patients in a direct discussion with healthcare providers (HCPs) regarding the patient journey and highlight real-world evidence of areas where patient outcomes could be improved in the absence of clinical evidence. The resulting discussion highlighted important healthcare gaps for patients with, and at risk of, PCa-TRCI and offered potential solutions as a roadmap to effective medicine.