Sanchia S Goonewardene, Young A, Raj Persad and David Gillatt
Background: Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. With advances in surgery, more and more patients are undergoing radical prostatectomy and one important side effect of surgery is erectile dysfunction. We assess men’s’ post-operative psychosexual needs in two cancer centres in England; co-design and implement a psychosexual pathway in one centre and compare patient experiences and outcomes between the bespoke and usual care pathways.
Method: A systematic review was conducted of prostate cancer survivorship and psychosexual care, to support the development of a psychosexual pathway. Population: men post-surgery with prostate cancer post robotic surgery. Intervention: psychosexual care interventions for men post robotic surgery for prostate cancer.
Outcome measurements: impact of pathway on psychosexual care to be assessed using IIEF, secondary outcomes health related quality of life and acute and chronic co-morbidities to be assessed.
Results: The systematic review elicited over 1200 papers, 27 of which conformed to the search criteria. The psychosexual concerns after prostate cancer surgery were identified from the systematic review by patients as an unmet need. Additionally, very few papers addressed interventions to manage psychosexual concerns for men post robotic prostate cancer surgery.
Conclusion: This systematic review demonstrated a large unmet need for psychosexual care in men with prostate cancer post-surgery. Poor health related quality of life was also strongly associated with psychosexual concerns and also co-morbidities, within the systematic review.
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Journal of Cancer Clinical Trials received 95 citations as per Google Scholar report
