Improving sexual health in men with prostate cancer: randomised controlled trial of exercise and psychosexual therapies
File version
Author(s)
Chambers, Suzanne K
Newton, Robert U
Gardiner, Robert A
Spry, Nigel
Taaffe, Dennis R
Joseph, David
Hamid, M Akhlil
Chong, Peter
Hughes, David
Hamilton, Kyra
Galvao, Daniel A
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
Size
450954 bytes
File type(s)
application/pdf
Location
Abstract
Background: Despite being a critical survivorship care issue, there is a clear gap in current knowledge of the optimal treatment of sexual dysfunction in men with prostate cancer. There is sound theoretical rationale and emerging evidence that exercise may be an innovative therapy to counteract sexual dysfunction in men with prostate cancer. Furthermore, despite the multidimensional aetiology of sexual dysfunction, there is a paucity of research investigating the efficacy of integrated treatment models. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to: 1) examine the efficacy of exercise as a therapy to aid in the management of sexual dysfunction in men with prostate cancer; 2) determine if combining exercise and brief psychosexual intervention results in more pronounced improvements in sexual health; and 3) assess if any benefit of exercise and psychosexual intervention on sexual dysfunction is sustained long term. Methods/Design: A three-arm, multi-site randomised controlled trial involving 240 prostate cancer survivors will be implemented. Participants will be randomised to: 1) 'Exercise' intervention; 2) 'Exercise + Psychosexual' intervention; or 3) 'Usual Care'. The Exercise group will receive a 6-month, group based, supervised resistance and aerobic exercise intervention. The Exercise + Psychosexual group will receive the same exercise intervention plus a brief psychosexual self-management intervention that addresses psychological and sexual well-being. The Usual Care group will maintain standard care for 6 months. Measurements for primary and secondary endpoints will take place at baseline, 6 months (post-intervention) and 1 year follow-up. The primary endpoint is sexual health and secondary endpoints include key factors associated with sexual health in men with prostate cancer. Discussion: Sexual dysfunction is one of the most prevalent and distressing consequences of prostate cancer. Despite this, very little is known about the management of sexual dysfunction and current health care services do not adequately meet sexual health needs of survivors. This project will examine the potential role of exercise in the management of sexual dysfunction and evaluate a potential best-practice management approach by integrating pharmacological, physiological and psychological treatment modalities to address the complex and multifaceted aetiology of sexual dysfunction following cancer.
Journal Title
BMC Cancer
Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume
14
Issue
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
© 2014 Cormie et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Item Access Status
Note
Page numbers are not for citation purposes. Instead, this article has the unique article number of 199.
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject
Exercise physiology
Oncology and carcinogenesis
Epidemiology