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Although sexual function in prostate cancer patients receiving external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) decreases within the first 2 years after prostate cancer treatment, it then stabilizes and does not continue to decline as was thought earlier, according to a recently published study from the International Journal of Radiation Oncology.
143 prostate cancer patients receiving EBRT were evaluated by researchers at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, and the University of California, Davis who completed baseline data on sexual function before prostate cancer treatment and at follow-up visits.
Patients that received cancer treatment were studied on their sexual drive, erectile function, ejaculatory function, and overall satisfaction for an average time of about 4 years. The results showed that the strongest predictor of sexual function after cancer treatment was sexual function before treatment, and the only statistically significant decrease in function occurred in the first 2 years after treatment and then stabilized with no considerable changes after that.
The results of this study allow patients and their partners to know that sexual function does not continue to decline when receiving EBRT and that they can have a good quality of life in knowing that sexual function side effects will stabilize after a couple of years after treatment.
Results from the study were published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics (2010; 76:31-5).
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