To the Editor

Feldman-Stewart D , Brundage MD , Hayter C , et al What questions do patients with curable prostate cancer want answered ? Med Decis Making. 2000;20 7-19.

Mazur DJ. Information disclosure and beyond: how do patients understand and use the information they report they want? Med Decis Making 2000;20:132-4

Kassirer JP. Our stubborn quest for diagnostic certainty; a cause of excessive testing. N Engl J Med. 1989;320:1489-91

Coley CM , Barry MJ , Fleming C , Fahs MC , Mulley AG. Early detection of prostate cancer. II. Estimating the risks, benefits, and costs: American College of Physicians Ann Intern Med 1997,126:468-79

Chang PL , Yu-Chuan L , Wang TM , Huang ST , Hsieh ML , Tsui KH. Evaluation of a decision-support system for preoperative staging of prostate cancer Med Decis Making 1999;19 419-27.

D'Amico AV , Whittington R , Schnall M , et al. The impact of the inclusion of endorectal coil magnetic resonance imaging in a multivariate analysis to predict clinically unsuspected extraprostatic cancer. Cancer. 1995;75:2368-72.

Partin AW , Yoo J , Carter HB , et al. The use of prostate specific antigen, clinical stage and Gleason score to predict pathological stage in men with localized prostate cancer J Urol. 1993;150:110-4

Pauker SG , Kassirer JP The threshold approach to clinical decision making N Engl J Med. 1980;302:1109-17

Jager GJ Severens JL , Thornbury JR , de la Rosette JJMCH , Ruijs SHJ , Barentsz JO. Prostate cancer staging: should MR imaging be used? A decision analytic approach Radiology 2000;215:445-51

Feldman-Stewart D , Brundage MD , Hayter C , et al. What prostate cancer patients should know: variations in professionals' opinions . Radiother Oncol 1998;49 111-23

McDonald CJ. Medical heuristics. the silent adjudicator of clinical practice Ann Intern Med. 1996;124:56-62