Sexual Function in Women with Colorectal/Anal Cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Treatments for colorectal and anal cancers can have a detrimental impact on sexual function. Type of treatment, which may include surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy, varies by disease site and severity. Treatment and long-term side effects can impact sexual function and intimacy for patients and their partners. Aim: To review the literature regarding treatment for colorectal/anal cancer and its impact on female sexual function, and to provide an assessment of medical outcomes and patient-reported outcomes (PROs) of women with a history of colon, rectal, or anal cancer seeking sexual health treatment. Methods: We performed a PubMed search to identify peer-reviewed, English-language articles, published from 2008 to 2018, using the following search terms: "colorectal cancer," or "rectal cancer," or "anal cancer" and "sexual function," or "sexual dysfunction." We also assessed the medical outcomes and PROs from our recent cross-sectional cohort study of 99 women with a history of colon, rectal, or anal cancer seeking sexual health treatment. Main Outcome Measures: Sexual function, quality of life, and PROs after colorectal/anal cancer Results: Twenty-three studies were identified. Study designs included 15 cross-sectional survey studies, 5 longitudinal studies, 2 psychoeducational interventions, and 1 pilot study. Ten studies included women and 13 included both men and women. The literature and our cohort confirmed

Risk of Pharmacological or Hospital Treatment for Depression in Patients with Colorectal Cancer–Associations with Pre-Cancer Lifestyle, Comorbidity and Clinical Factors

“…1st quartile: <=14.5 (least active), 2nd quartile: 14.5-26, 3rd quartile: >26-43.8, 4th quartile (most active): >43.8. 7 Comorbidity is classified according to a modified the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), excluding cancer.…”

“…The physical late effects of CRC and its treatments are well known and include among other things gastrointestinal and urogenital problems [6], sexual dysfunction [7] and neuropathy [8,9]. This group of patients may also live with a colostomy as a result of the surgical intervention, giving rise to specific problems.…”

A Coordinated Clinical Center for Young Onset Colorectal Cancer

“…Fertility and sexual health are also major concerns; however, 64% of survey participants indicated that a medical professional did not talk to them about fertility preservation during diagnosis or treatment [20]. Sexual dysfunction has been reported to be one of the most common longterm effects of CRC treatment [28] and may be of particular concern for young adult patients [29]. Based on these data, we identified psychosocial services, fertility, and sexual health as the key clinical programmatic elements.…”

Frequency of Sexual Problems and Related Psychosocial Characteristics in Cancer Patients—Findings From an Epidemiological Multicenter Study in Germany

“…Existing research has mainly focused on women who have breast or gynecological cancer (Chen et al, 2018;Ljungman et al, 2018;Condorelli et al, 2019) and men who have prostate cancer (Cakar et al, 2013;Fode et al, 2017;Clavell-Hernández et al, 2018) as well on mixed populations such as colon cancer patients (Canty et al, 2019;Stulz et al, 2020). Some cancer types, including gynecological or prostate cancer directly affect the sexual organs.…”