Some men with localised prostate cancer mistakenly believe robotic surgery is the treatment most likely to cure them, perhaps because they were diagnosed by a urologist, a Sydney study suggests.

Researchers conducted detailed interviews with 25 men considering having a free robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) through the public system at Liverpool Hospital in 2017.

They were interviewed before and after attending a combined clinic at the hospital where they had consultations with a radiation oncologist and a urologist and had the options explained to them.

When they made their treatment choice, they tended not to consider side effects, but chose the treatment they felt was most likely to cure their cancer, the researchers wrote.