: Physicians do poorly at predicting life expectancy and tend to underestimate how long patients have left to live. This overall inaccuracy raises the question of whether physicians should refine screening and treatment criteria, find a better proxy or dispose of the criteria altogether.
Late-onset male hypogonadism has long been recognized as a treatable medical condition; however, misconceptions about the use of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) have often led urologists away from its more mainstream use. This paper aims to bring the reader up-to-date on the current understanding of TRT, starting with when and who to treat. Various formulations of TRT, each with its own risks and benefits, are also detailed. Finally, a comprehensive analysis of the current literature's views into the various controversies of TRT including its impact on prostate health, sexual health, cardiovascular health, frailty, and mood is discussed.
Introduction: We assess physicians' ability to accurately predict life expectancies. In prostate cancer this prediction is especially important as it affects screening decisions. No previous studies have examined accuracy in the context of real cases and concrete end points. Methods: Seven clinical scenarios were summarized from charts of deceased patients. We recruited 100 medical professionals to review these scenarios and estimate each patient's life expectancy. Responses were analyzed with respect to the patients' actual survival end points, then stratified based on the demographic information provided. Results: Respondent factors, such as sex, level of training, location of work or specialty, made no significant difference on prediction accuracy. Furthermore, respondents were typically pessimistic in their estimations with a negative linear trend between estimated life expectancy and actual survival. Overall, respondents were within 1 year of actual life expectancy only 15.9% of the time; on average, respondents were 67.4% inaccurate in relation to actual survival. If framed in terms of correctly identifying which patients would live more than or less than 10 years (dichotomous accuracy), physicians were correct 68.3% of the time. Conclusions: Physicians do poorly at predicting life expectancy and tend to underestimate how long patients have left to live. This overall inaccuracy raises the question of whether physicians should refine screening and treatment criteria, find a better proxy or dispose of the criteria altogether.
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