Abstracts by keywords: Prostate cancer
In Europe, a disease is considered rare if it affects no more than one in 2,000 EU residents. In total, around 30 million people in Europe suffer from one of around 6,000 to 8,000 different rare diseases, around 4 million of them in Germany alone (Eurordis 2009). The number of those affected varies greatly between the diseases: one of the most well-known rare diseases, cystic fibrosis, affects around 8,000 people in Germany alone (Eurordis 2009), and the disease NBIA - nerve degeneration with iron storage in the brain - is estimated to be only in Germany About 100 patients are known. Anyone who struggles with an illness that hardly affects anyone else encounters special challenges: a lack of knowledge among doctors, nurses and therapists, a lack of treatment options, and geographically widely distributed expertise. The lower the prevalence of the often chronic and progressive multi-organ diseases, the less research is available on treatment and care options.
02.10.2012
HAROW is a study in the field of urological health services research and at the same time the largest study on localized prostate cancer (PCa) in Germany. The name is derived from the first letters of the treatment options applicable to PCa, hormone therapy, active surveillance, radiotherapy, surgery and watchful waiting. HAROW documents the course of the different therapy strategies under everyday conditions. It records medical progress data, information on communication between doctor and patient, side effects and therapy acceptance as well as the costs of treatment under everyday conditions. The special feature is that, for the first time in Germany, defensive strategies such as active surveillance and watchful waiting are included in the treatment comparison. The aim is to record the distribution across the different treatment arms, the resource consumption and benefits as well as the acceptance of the therapies under everyday conditions. The following article presents the concept and structure of the study and shares some of the results evaluated.