Optimizing Veteran-Centered Prostate Cancer Survivorship Care

Although there are nearly 150,000 prostate cancer survivors in the VA, there has been little
research to understand and improve survivorship care for this large population of Veterans. A
substantial proportion of prostate cancer survivors in the general population have
significant side effects from treatment (surgery or radiation therapy) that often persist for
years, including incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and metabolic syndrome, all of which can
contribute to decreased quality of life. The investigators' pilot data suggests that VA
prostate cancer survivors experience similar or worse symptom burden to that of the general
population of survivors. To address the need to improve patient-centered survivorship care
management for Veterans with prostate cancer, the investigators propose a 4 year study with
two aims: 1) to conduct a randomized controlled trial to compare a personally tailored
automated telephone symptom management intervention for improving symptoms and symptom
self-management to usual care. The investigators expect that those in the intervention group
will have more confidence in symptom self-management and better symptom self-management and
prostate cancer quality of life following the intervention, and that these outcomes will
translate to more efficient use of services for these Veterans, and 2) to compare utilization
of services among those in the intervention group to those in the control group.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Veteran patient at one of the four study sites (Ann Arbor VA, Cleveland VA, Pittsburgh
VA, St. Louis VA)

- History of treatment for prostate cancer treated by surgery, radiation or androgen
deprivation therapy between 1-10 years prior to identification

Exclusion Criteria:

- No phone number on file

- Not able to converse on the telephone in English

- Treated for metastatic disease or non-prostate cancer

- Dementia or other significant mental impairment