The choice involves a trade-off so it is of central importance for the patient and the physician to have access to empirical information on established treatment benefits and side effects.
[1] An important factor here is that prevalence of these symptoms and the distress they cause varies between types of treatment and individual patients.
One option is to trade off an intact sexual function for the possibility of a prolonged life expectancy by not having curative treatment.
[1] While six out of ten were willing to consider a trade-off between life expectancy and intact sexual function, given the present knowledge of treatment benefits for clinically localized prostate cancer, four out of ten stated that they would under all circumstances choose treatment irrespective of the risk for waning sexual function.
A substantial proportion of patients and physicians, experience stress in judging the trade-off between different treatment options and treatment side-effects which adds to the stress of cancer diagnosed, a situation made worse in that eight out of ten prostate cancer patients have no one to confide in except their spouse and one out of five live in total emotional isolation.