Understanding Multidisciplinary Care for Advanced Prostate Cancer

Scott T. Tagawa, MD, MS, FACP, FASCO, professor of medicine and Urology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and an attending physician at NewYork-Presbyterian – Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses that patients with advanced prostate cancer benefit from a multidisciplinary care team. This team should include specialists from different areas, such as medical oncology, radiology, and nuclear medicine.

Transcription:

0:09 | Generally, I would say that my belief is that patients and their families will benefit from multidisciplinary input. It does not have to be 1 specialty, it does not have to be physicians all in 1 setting in 1 day, [but] access to all of those, [and] I think [this] is true, it helps patients across the board and across cancers. When we get into therapeutic radionuclides, as a general rule and what is a must [is] what I call the primary care treaters for advanced prostate cancer, generally medical oncologists, radiologists, we are generally not licensed to be able to administer therapy or any form of radiation, including radionuclides.

0:53 | For radiation oncology or nuclear medicine, some of them will be the primary caregivers, but generally not. It is an extra referral to have them as part of the overall group. I think that, in terms of nuclear medicine, it is naturally happening because of PSMA PETs. And for radiation oncology, therapeutic radiation has always been a part of prostate cancer, palliative external beam radium, and now you know, other agents. I think we want someone with expertise to be able to do that. I think the major part is access. So for patients who have access, whether the treating physicians or even radiation oncologists or nuclear medicine physicians, we want the team to be overall knowledgeable and supportive to be able to do that. So that multidisciplinary care, I think, is 1 key aspect.