Decision Making in Men With Early Stage Prostate Cancer Patients and Partners/Close Allies

The purpose of this study is to collect information on how patients and their partners/close allies make treatment decisions when they have been diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer.

Each patient and his partner will fill out assessments at baseline. Thereafter we will obtain the patients' treatment decision (AT or AS) within approximately 6 months. Once a patient makes a decision, he and his partner will complete another set of questionnaires. The patient and his partner will then complete the remaining questionnaires approximately 6, 12, 18, and 24 months following the treatment decision. We will examine the associations between baseline assessments , and the treatment decision as well as the changes in the assessments and the treatment decision. We will also assess associations between follow-up assessments and the decision to change a treatment decision from AS to AT. Data from patients and partners/close allies will generally be analyzed separately, thus patients who do not have a partner (or partner declines to participate) can still be enrolled and their psychosocial outcomes assessed.