Sexual Dysfunction in Patients Treated for Cervical Cancer at the Cancer Center Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in women in Kenya. Majority of the patients are diagnosed with locally advanced cancer which is treated with a combination of concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy followed by brachytherapy. With adequate treatment of the disease the survivors are able to have a long disease free and overall survival, and experience the adverse effects of radiation which include fibrosis, vaginal stenosis and dryness. This leads to sexual dysfunction and reduction in the quality of life of the survivors. However despite this changes sexual dysfunction is rarely addressed by the clinicians at the clinic. OBJECTIVE: To assess the sexual dysfunction in patients treated for cancer of the cervix in the Cancer Treatment Centre, Kenyatta National Hospital. STUDY DESIGN AND SITE This is a cross sectional study which will be carried out on the female cervical cancer survivors treated at the Cancer Treatment Centre in the Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi Kenya. PARTICIPANTS AND METHOD The participants will be recruited from the routine follow up clinics at the cancer treatment centre. The inclusion criteria will be cervical cancer survivors who have been treated with radiotherapy. The exclusion criteria will include patients who have persistent or recurrent disease after radiotherapy and those with stage IV disease including those that have vesicovaginal or rectovaginal fistulas. 6 DATA MANAGEMENT A questionnaire will be administered in order to get the sexual history before diagnosis and after treatment of cervical cancer. Information on the side effects of radiotherapy treatment which would affect sexual function will also be determined. The questionnaire will be administered by a trained nurse. Continuous data such as age, duration will be compared using t test or ANOVA as appropriate for normally distributed data and for data that is not normally distributed it will be analysed using non parametric tests such as Chi test for proportions Mannwhitney U test or Kruskal wallis test