EAU and NICE guidelines for the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer. How wide is the channel?

Abstract

Background: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in Europe. Both the European Association of Urologists (EAU) and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) provide evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer. NICE is a national body involved in the production of efficacious guidelines for a wide spectrum of diseases across many specialities, whereas EAU is a specialist body of urologists and members of the urology multidisciplinary team across Europe. This paper describes the areas of agreement and explains the variations between these two often-quoted documents. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to review the guidelines of prostate cancer and to offer a comparison of prostate cancer guidance management for urologists and associated healthcare professionals. Conclusion: Both guidelines agree on areas of established consensus, especially in the diagnosis and staging of prostate cancer. There are however differences in the treatment algorithms, especially in advanced and metastatic disease. The differences in general seem to be due to the different functions and make-ups of the two bodies rather than disagreement on current evidence.