Clinical Preferences of Turkish Urologists in Screening and Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer and Adherence to European Association of Urology Guidelines

Objective: To compare the clinical preferences of urologists in prostate cancer screening and diagnosis with current guideline recommendations.Materials and Methods: The study is based on an online survey that consists of 21 single response or multiple response questions. By e-mail, 2,305 certified urologists in active practice as well as urology residents in their last year of training were invited to participate in the study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze practice patterns and demographics. The respondents were divided into groups based on their experience in urology, hospital type and academic title.Results: Our results show that preferences of the majority of urologists conflicts with recommendations of European Association of Urology Prostate Cancer Guidelines regarding prostate biopsy method, management of a patient with high prostate-specific antigen value, use of additional test and performance scoring systems, role of multiparametric prostate magnetic resonance imaging.Conclusion: Urologists act in the direction of their habits or clinical experience rather than current guidelines regardless of their experience. Both clinicians and professional organizations should work on what can be done about the reflection of rapidly changing scientific knowledge on the field and the improvement of the health service provided.