Finding a treatment that fit a patient's priorities and goal

The Next Door Neighbor: For over two decades of meeting with men about a newly diagnosed prostate cancer, one of the more common mistake i see men make in deciding on treatment is what i call, "the neighbor next door". This may be a neighbor, colleague, friend from the gym, nurse/doctor friend, or other acquaintance that had prostate cancer with either a very good or bad outcome/side effect; they are trying to be helpful, but they impose an anecdotal experience and continue to circle back with the patient to convince them one way or the other.
The Dog Next Door: I do use an analogy to help patients understand not all prostate cancers are the same. In fact, each are unique, therefore no 2 patients are the same. This is similar to a neighbor getting a new dog- and it may be a Poodle or a Pitbull, but not all poodles are nice and not all Pitbulls are mean- Prostate cancer has less and more aggressive forms, but they don't also follow these labels.
Each cancer and patient unique: Moreover, prostate cancer comes at different states (high and low grade, high and low volume) and patients present at different ages and co-morbidities. Men need to consider multiple factors in deciding on what treatment is best for them and their disease. But what was best for the neighbor, may not be best for you...you need to weight the advantages/disadvantages of each treatment option and the risk involved in making a decision.