Course Description:

This course provides learners with the medical management and cancer rehabilitation of people living with and beyond (PLWB) prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting males with over 3.1 million survivors currently in the United States. The majority will not die from the disease, instead will manage it as a chronic disease. Due to this longevity, PLWB prostate cancer can have a host of acute, latent, and long-lasting adverse effects of treatment that rehab professionals are well positioned to address including bowel and bladder frequency, urgency, and incontinence, erectile dysfunction, sarcopenia, arthritis, deconditioning, lymphedema, and chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. These impairments have a significant impact on PLWB prostate cancer’s ability to engage in meaningful life roles and their overall quality of life.

This course will discuss how prostate cancer is diagnosed, staged, and managed through various treatments including surgery, radiation, both full pelvic and brachytherapy, chemotherapy, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and immunotherapy. Each of these treatments have a host of adverse effects which compound when used for men at higher risk for disease progression or with advanced disease. Additionally, this course will discuss life expectancies and trajectories of metastatic disease and the impact of health care disparities in care access and resulting impacts on survival and quality of life.

By presenting the medical and rehabilitation needs of men with prostate cancer, this course will position not just specialists in specific impairments such as pelvic health dysfunction or lymphedema, but also integrate cancer physical and occupational therapists to be able to screen, examine and manage the functional impacts of prostate cancer and its treatments and improve quality of life. This course will include interactive discussion and quizzes for the application of cancer rehab as situated within specialization, Dietz Classification, International Classification of Health (ICF), and for OT’s- the occupational profile; based on the medical management of prostate cancer and team-based care.