Prostate Cancer: Family Care for Patients and Spouses

The purpose of this study was to determine if a family-based intervention (The FOCUS Program) could improve the long-term quality of life and other psycho-social outcomes of men with prostate cancer and their spouse/partners. Aim 1. The first aim was to determine if the family intervention could improve several proximal clinical outcomes (less negative appraisal of illness or caregiving, less uncertainty, less hopelessness, better family communication, higher self-efficacy, and more problem-focused coping) and improve the distal clinical outcome, quality of life, in a culturally and economically diverse sample of men with prostate cancer and their spouses. Aim 2. The second aim was to test a stress-coping model designed to predict which prostate cancer patients and their spouses are at higher risk of poorer long-term quality of life.