Dr. Samuel Washington III on work burden following prostate cancer treatment

In this video, Samuel L. Washington III, MD, discusses the background for the recent Cancer Medicine study “Ten-year work burden after prostate cancer treatment.” Washington is an assistant professor of urology and holds the Goldberg-Benioff Endowed Professorship in Cancer Biology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Transcription:

Please describe the background for this study.

For [this study], we looked at work burden. How much time people are taking off from work or their usual activities for prostate cancer treatment? This really came from a question that comes up often in clinical practice, where patients ask, "How much time do I need to take off from work?" Often, they frame this as, "OK, well, I only need 1 day off for surgery. And then I need more days off for radiation, [but with] surgery, [it's] one and done and I should be fine." Those are the ideas that are often presented, and we always have to reframe and say, "Wait, no, there's still follow-up afterwards, surveillance." Those are days that will still be required to get lab testing, to get clinic visits to come see us; in some cases, imaging. So there are always other aspects of care other than that immediate treatment period that's needed. We wanted to characterize that long term so we can better inform our patients of what treatment and survivorship after treatment looks like in terms of their care.

This transcript was edited for clarity.