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Sexual health recovery after prostatectomy, external radiation, or brachytherapy for early stage prostate cancer

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Abstract

Each of the three most common contemporary treatments for localized prostate cancer, radical prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy, and brachytherapy, can have adverse effects on sexual health. Sexual health outcome can be improved by treatment-specific factors, such as the use of nerve-sparing technique during radical prostatectomy, or worsened by the use of androgen deprivation before external beam radiotherapy or brachytherapy. Contemporary studies that have used validated questionnaires to evaluate multiple components of patient-reported sexuality following prostate cancer treatments provide benchmarks of sexual outcome expectations that are of interest to patients selecting their prostate cancer treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Urology, Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center, Rabb 440, 330 Brookline Avenue, 02215, Boston, MA, USA

    Brent K. Hollenbeck MD, Rodney L. Dunn MS, John T. Wei MD, Howard M. Sandler MD & Martin G. Sanda MD

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  1. Brent K. Hollenbeck MD
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  2. Rodney L. Dunn MS
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  3. John T. Wei MD
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  4. Howard M. Sandler MD
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  5. Martin G. Sanda MD
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Hollenbeck, B.K., Dunn, R.L., Wei, J.T. et al. Sexual health recovery after prostatectomy, external radiation, or brachytherapy for early stage prostate cancer. Curr Urol Rep 5, 212–219 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11934-004-0039-1

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