Abstract 19P
Background
Patients treated for non-epithelial rare germ cell tumors (GCT) and sex cord stromal tumors frequently have long survival. Treatments mainly include conservative surgery plus chemotherapy (CT) [bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin (BEP)] that may induce late side effects with negative impact on quality-of-life (QOL), as reported in testicular cancer survivors. The French Rare Malignant Gynecological Tumors (TMRG)/GINECO case-control study assessed long term QOL among survivors as compared to age-matched healthy women (HW).
Methods
Non-epithelial ovarian cancer survivors (nEOCS), cancer-free ≥2 years after end of treatment, were identified from the INCa French Network for TMRG. HW were issued from the ‘Seintinelles’ research platform. QOL (FACT-G/FACT-O), chronic fatigue (MFI), anxiety/depression (HADS), insomnia (ISI), neurotoxicity (FACT/GOG-NTX), cognition (FACT-COG) and sexuality items (from FACT-O OCS) were compared between nEOCS and HW. A minimal 5% difference of scores between groups was considered as clinically relevant. A specific questionnaire evaluating affective relationships was used for nEOCS (non applicable for HW). This analysis focuses on sexual life of nEOCS.
Results
Among the 144 nEOCS (including 112 GCT) enrolled (mean age at inclusion: 38; 60% <40), the median delay from the end of treatments to inclusion was 6 yrs. Affective relationships were modified for 74 (61%) of patients, with 18% of patients getting a divorce. These modifications were attributed to cancer diagnosis and treatment for 69% (n=52). Deterioration of sexual life was experimented for 34% (n=47). Despite these alterations of sexual living, 59% (n= 83) weren’t proposed to discuss these difficulties with their healthcare providers. In comparison with HW, we previously demonstrated that nEOCS felt less like a woman (68% vs 81%, p<0.02), reported less interest in sex (35% vs 55%, p<0.001) and more concern of childlessness (31% vs 13%, p=0.007) than HW.
Conclusions
Most of the long-term nEOCS reported disturbance in their sexual life, even 6 years after the end of treatments that may impact their daily life. Sexual disorders are probably underestimated and need to be more precisely evaluated by healthcare providers.
Clinical trial identification
NCT03418844.
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Centre François Baclesse.
Funding
Fondation ARC pour la Recherche sur le Cancer.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.