Elevating the Patient Voice: Understanding Treatment Preferences in Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer - Beyond the Abstract
July 31, 2025
With multiple oral medications currently available for patients with prostate cancer, there is a need to understand how patients' preferences and experiences are impacted by several factors, including pill burden and dosing frequency.
Biographies:
Elizabeth Wulff-Burchfield, MD, Associate Professor, Medical Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
Biographies:
Elizabeth Wulff-Burchfield, MD, Associate Professor, Medical Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS
Read the Full Video Transcript
Elizabeth Wulff: Hello, my name is Elizabeth Wulff, and I'm a genitourinary medical oncologist and palliative care physician at the University of Kansas. On behalf of my coauthors and myself, I'm happy to present our work entitled "Elevating the Patient Voice, Understanding Treatment Preferences in Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer." If you'd like to read our full publication in Advances in Therapy, please scan the QR code or follow the link provided.
With multiple treatment options available for patients with prostate cancer across multiple disease states and stages, there's an unmet need to understand the impact of pill burden on adherence to therapy, as well as the overall patient experience. To meet this need, we conducted a cross-sectional study of adult male patients with advanced prostate cancer living in the United States.
There were 100 participants in this study with a median age of 65 years. 53% of participants in the study identified as white, 31% identified as Black or African-American, and 15 reported that they had a Hispanic ethnicity.
Let's evaluate some of the key findings. So patients were asked a series of questions and were asked to agree or disagree with statements about taking pills themselves. You can see in figure 1 on the left side of the screen that 91% of patients reported that they preferred a one-pill, once-per-day regimen over a multipill regimen, and that they did not prefer regimens that required multiple pills per day.
When exploring some of the barriers to taking oral treatments multiple times per day, patients were asked a series of additional questions as depicted in figure 2 on the right side. The top two barriers that were identified included patients remembering to take pills multiple times per day, as well as carrying multiple pills with them when they leave the house.
On the next results slide, we'll review some of what we evaluated regarding mode of administration. So 20% of patients on this study reported difficulty swallowing pills. And an additional 2% were unsure if they had difficulty. So this small group was asked additional questions about formulations.
95% of patients in this group considered it important that a pill could be dispersed in water or potentially crushed into another substance, such as applesauce or pudding. And 32% considered it important that a pill could be dissolved and administered via feeding tube.
When thinking about modes of administration of anticancer therapies, the full group responded to a question about oral cancer therapies or intravenous chemotherapy. 89% of participants voiced that they preferred an oral cancer treatment, with 1% preferring an IV chemotherapy and 10% unsure.
So in conclusion, what we learned from our study is that almost all patients prefer a one-pill, once-per-day regimen, and almost all prefer the option of having an oral cancer therapy as opposed to an IV chemotherapy. One in five patients have difficulty swallowing pills, and almost all of these patients consider it important that a pill could be dissolved or crushed in order to have an alternate route of administration.
So when discussing cancer therapies with patients, it's important for clinicians to consider patient preferences about pill burden, about treatment frequency, ability to swallow pills and route of administration, as well as the patient's desire to avoid intravenous chemotherapy. Thank you for watching. And again, if you're interested in reading the full publication in Advances in Therapy, you can go back to the first slide and follow the QR code or the link. Thank you.
Elizabeth Wulff: Hello, my name is Elizabeth Wulff, and I'm a genitourinary medical oncologist and palliative care physician at the University of Kansas. On behalf of my coauthors and myself, I'm happy to present our work entitled "Elevating the Patient Voice, Understanding Treatment Preferences in Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer." If you'd like to read our full publication in Advances in Therapy, please scan the QR code or follow the link provided.
With multiple treatment options available for patients with prostate cancer across multiple disease states and stages, there's an unmet need to understand the impact of pill burden on adherence to therapy, as well as the overall patient experience. To meet this need, we conducted a cross-sectional study of adult male patients with advanced prostate cancer living in the United States.
There were 100 participants in this study with a median age of 65 years. 53% of participants in the study identified as white, 31% identified as Black or African-American, and 15 reported that they had a Hispanic ethnicity.
Let's evaluate some of the key findings. So patients were asked a series of questions and were asked to agree or disagree with statements about taking pills themselves. You can see in figure 1 on the left side of the screen that 91% of patients reported that they preferred a one-pill, once-per-day regimen over a multipill regimen, and that they did not prefer regimens that required multiple pills per day.
When exploring some of the barriers to taking oral treatments multiple times per day, patients were asked a series of additional questions as depicted in figure 2 on the right side. The top two barriers that were identified included patients remembering to take pills multiple times per day, as well as carrying multiple pills with them when they leave the house.
On the next results slide, we'll review some of what we evaluated regarding mode of administration. So 20% of patients on this study reported difficulty swallowing pills. And an additional 2% were unsure if they had difficulty. So this small group was asked additional questions about formulations.
95% of patients in this group considered it important that a pill could be dispersed in water or potentially crushed into another substance, such as applesauce or pudding. And 32% considered it important that a pill could be dissolved and administered via feeding tube.
When thinking about modes of administration of anticancer therapies, the full group responded to a question about oral cancer therapies or intravenous chemotherapy. 89% of participants voiced that they preferred an oral cancer treatment, with 1% preferring an IV chemotherapy and 10% unsure.
So in conclusion, what we learned from our study is that almost all patients prefer a one-pill, once-per-day regimen, and almost all prefer the option of having an oral cancer therapy as opposed to an IV chemotherapy. One in five patients have difficulty swallowing pills, and almost all of these patients consider it important that a pill could be dissolved or crushed in order to have an alternate route of administration.
So when discussing cancer therapies with patients, it's important for clinicians to consider patient preferences about pill burden, about treatment frequency, ability to swallow pills and route of administration, as well as the patient's desire to avoid intravenous chemotherapy. Thank you for watching. And again, if you're interested in reading the full publication in Advances in Therapy, you can go back to the first slide and follow the QR code or the link. Thank you.