Awareness, concern, and communication between physicians and patients on bone health in nonmetastatic prostate cancer.

246 Background: Little is known about physicians’ (MDs) and prostate cancer (PC) patients’ (pts) levels of awareness or concern about bone health or how/when MDs discuss bone health with at-risk pts. An online survey was conducted to explore these issues and evaluate knowledge levels and attitudes about cancer treatment-induced bone loss (CTIBL). Methods: A total of 4,403 oncologists and 4,961 urologists randomly selected from the American Medical Association master physician list, 533 oncologists from the Harris Physician Panel, and 3,400 pts from Harris’ Chronic Illness Panel were invited to participate in the survey. Surveys lasted on average 10 minutes; MD and pt surveys were weighted to be representative of the populations of interest. Descriptive statistical analyses were used. Results: Of those invited, 113 urologists and 63 oncologists completed the survey. The 186 PC pts who answered the survey (median age, 74 yrs; median time since PC diagnosis, 88 mos.) included 96 pts with nonmetastatic diseas...