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Endocrine therapy and urogenital outcomes among women with a breast cancer diagnosis

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Abstract

Purpose

Endocrine therapy for breast cancer can exacerbate menopausal symptoms. The association between endocrine therapy and common pelvic floor disorders including urinary incontinence has rarely been evaluated. We examined urogenital and sexual side effects among women with a breast cancer diagnosis, comparing endocrine therapy users to nonusers.

Methods

Urogenital and sexual symptoms were self-reported during the enrollment interview within the University of North Carolina Cancer Survivorship Cohort. Tumor characteristics and endocrine therapy use were collected from medical and prescription records. We calculated multivariable prevalence ratios (PR) and 95 % confidence intervals (CI) for the association of endocrine therapy (versus no endocrine therapy) and urinary incontinence, overall and by therapy type (tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors). PROMIS Sexual Function and Satisfaction domain scores were compared across endocrine therapy groups.

Results

Among the 548 women with a breast cancer diagnosis, 49 % received endocrine therapy. Overall, 18 % of women reported urinary incontinence symptoms. We observed no association between urinary incontinence and endocrine therapy use overall (PR = 0.97; 95 % CI 0.67, 1.43), tamoxifen (PR = 1.20; 95 % CI 0.74, 1.96), or aromatase inhibitors (PR = 0.89; 95 % CI 0.55, 1.42), compared to no use. Approximately 55 % of women were sexually active. Sexual function scores did not vary according to endocrine therapy use, although urinary incontinence was associated with lower satisfaction scores (p = 0.05).

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate a high prevalence of urinary incontinence after breast cancer diagnosis similar to the overall prevalence in older U.S. women, and this did not vary strongly according to use of endocrine therapy.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the UNC Health Registry/Cancer Survivorship Cohort (HR/CSC) participants for their important contributions and appreciate the helpful comments of Dr. Antonia Bennett. The UNC HR/CSC is funded in part by the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s University Cancer Research Fund.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 135 Dauer Drive, 2101 McGavran-Greenberg Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7435, USA

    Suzanne N. Landi, Jeannette T. Bensen & Hazel B. Nichols

  2. Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 135 Dauer Drive, 170 Rosenau Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7400, USA

    Kemi M. Doll

  3. Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 450 West Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7295, USA

    Kemi M. Doll, Jeannette T. Bensen, Laura Hendrix & Carey K. Anders

  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 3032 Old Clinic Building, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7570, USA

    Jennifer M. Wu

Authors
  1. Suzanne N. Landi
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  2. Kemi M. Doll
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  3. Jeannette T. Bensen
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  4. Laura Hendrix
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  5. Carey K. Anders
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  6. Jennifer M. Wu
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  7. Hazel B. Nichols
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suzanne N. Landi.

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Funding

This research was supported in part by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (KL2-TR001109).

Conflict of interest

Dr. Jennifer Wu has received institutional research grants from Boston Scientific and Pelvalon. The remaining authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Landi, S.N., Doll, K.M., Bensen, J.T. et al. Endocrine therapy and urogenital outcomes among women with a breast cancer diagnosis. Cancer Causes Control 27, 1325–1332 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-016-0810-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-016-0810-x

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