Prostate cancer survivors require coordinated long-term care after treatment. We examined patterns of follow-up care and identified characteristics associated with the frequency of radiation oncology (RO) visits during survivorship. We conducted a population-based cohort study of men diagnosed with prostate cancer between April 2010 and March 2019 in Ontario, Canada, who underwent first-line radiotherapy. Survivorship began three years following radiation. Using a recurrent event framework, we identified demographic and clinical characteristics associated with the rate of RO follow-up. Survivors seeking RO follow-up declined by 46.2% over five years of survivorship. Higher-risk characteristics, such as higher ISUP grade, higher stage, detectable prostate-specific antigen (PSA) score, and receipt of brachytherapy and\/or hormones, were associated with more frequent RO visits. For instance, relative to International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) Grade 1, those with Grades 3 through 5 experienced follow-up rates that were 20%, 25%, and 34% higher, respectively. Despite concordance between patient risk and rate of RO follow-up, 23.6% of survivors continued to visit their RO providers into their fifth year of survivorship, more than half of whom were ISUP grades 1\u20132. Primary care follow-up remained stable. While frequency of RO follow-up appropriately reflected patient risk profile, many low-risk survivors still sought long-term RO-led care. This suggests an opportunity to encourage lower-risk prostate cancer survivors to seek follow-up care with their general practitioner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prostate cancer survivors require coordinated long-term care after treatment. We examined patterns of follow-up care and identified characteristics associated with the frequency of radiation oncology (RO) visits during survivorship. We conducted a population-based cohort study of men diagnosed with prostate cancer between April 2010 and March 2019 in Ontario, Canada, who underwent first-line radiotherapy. Survivorship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","migration-helper-automated":[],"migration-manual":[],"topic":[38],"migration-helper-qa-sample-set":[],"class_list":["post-23166","journal_article","type-journal_article","status-publish","hentry","topic-cancer-and-cancer-screening"],"acf":{"citation":"Cerasuolo JO, Sussman J, Dayes IS, Sutradhar R, Zargoush M, Seow H. Curr Oncol<\/em>\ufeff<\/span>. 2026; 33(1): 49.","source_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/curroncol33010049","ices_scientist":[16732,1370,1366],"site":[6737],"research_program":[6741],"news_release":"","journal_article":"","atlas":"","research_report":"","infographic":"","video":"","downloads":null,"links":null,"sitecore_item_id":"","sitecore_item_name":"","sitecore_field_values":"","previous_url":""},"yoast_head":"\n