Patient, treatment characteristics used to predict erectile function two years post cancer treatment
TUESDAY, Sept. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Erectile function two years after prostate cancer treatment can be predicted based on patient and treatment characteristics, according to a study published in the Sept. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Mehrdad Alemozaffar, M.D., from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues developed a validated model to predict erectile function two years after prostate cancer treatment. Models were developed using pretreatment patient characteristics, sexual health-related quality of life (HRQOL), and treatment details from patients in an academic cohort (from 2003 to 2006), and were validated in a community-based cohort (from 1995 to 2007). Patient-reported sexual functionality two years following cancer treatment was the main outcome measure.
The investigators found that at two years after prostate cancer treatment, the use of medication or devices for erectile dysfunction was reported in 37 percent of all patients; 48 percent of those with functional erections before treatment reported functional erections, as did 53 percent of those without penile prostheses. Functional erections two years after treatment were correlated with pretreatment sexual HRQOL score, age, serum prostate-specific antigen level, race/ethnicity, body mass index, and intended treatment details. Models estimated two-year function probabilities from 10 percent or less to 70 percent or greater, depending on pretreatment patient characteristics and treatment detail. The models performed well in functional prediction in the validation cohort.
"Stratification by pretreatment patient characteristics and treatment details enables prediction of erectile function two years after prostatectomy, external radiotherapy, or brachytherapy for prostate cancer," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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