Delivering Prostate Cancer Patient Education

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the UK and it claims the life of one man every 45 minutes in the UK.

A significant barrier for many prostate cancer patients is access to high-quality educational information designed for those with low health literacy, which affects almost half the population and can negatively impact health outcomes. People with low health literacy are more likely to have less effective communication with clinicians and less likely to engage in active discussions about their health options, potentially leading to their needs being hidden. Older men are also less likely to ask questions of their doctors, which can lead to tremendous treatment regret. Ultimately, low health literacy can lead to increased visits to A&E, increased hospital stays, reduced treatment adherence, and higher mortality rates. As such, in 2022, Prostate Cancer Research and pharmaceutical company Ipsen partnered together to deliver a series of patient education webinars, called ‘What to Expect: A Guide to Prostate Cancer’. Over eight 1-hour webinars, we followed patients on a journey from first presenting at the doctors to receiving a diagnosis and potential treatment options, with the aim of educating and empowering patients in making shared decisions with their clinicians.