Comparative patient-centered outcomes (health state and adverse sexual symptoms) between adjuvant brachytherapy versus no adjuvant brachytherapy in early-stage endometrial cancer.

Abstract

9104 Background: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of survivors of stage I endometrial cancer (EC) to examine the relationship between receipt of adjuvant intra-vaginal radiation therapy (IVRT), health state (HS), and sexual functioning (SF). Methods: Survivors were administered anonymous questionnaires containing demographic and treatment-related items, the EQ5D to measure current HS, and the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) to measure current SF. All were disease-free and had undergone simple hysterectomy (SH) with or without adjuvant IVRT at least one year prior to questionnaire completion. None had received chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. The study was IRB-approved under a waiver of consent. The primary endpoint was a comparison of EQ5D-health states and FSFI scores between survivors who had received SH alone and those who had received SH and adjuvant IVRT. Fisher’s exact test was used to compare IVRT and no-IVRT groups and multivariate regression was applied to find associations between factors and the outcome measures. Results: 136 (66.3%) participants had undergone SH alone and 69 (33.7%) had undergone SH and adjuvant IVRT. The SH alone group was younger; otherwise, the two groups were balanced with respect to ethnicity, marital status, education level, medical co-morbidities (diabetes, hypertension, anxiety), type of SH (laparotomy vs minimally invasive surgery-MIS), and baseline sexual activity. In the IVRT and no-IVRT groups, the median EQ5D-health states were 88 (range 40-100) and 85 (range 10-100) respectively, and the median FSFI scores were 14.1 (range 1.2-35.4) and 16.5 (range 1.2-34.8) respectively. Controlling for age and type of SH, receipt of IVRT was associated with better HS (p=0.018) and not associated with poorer SF (p=0.1399). Receipt of laparotomy (vs MIS) was associated with poorer HS and worse SF (p=0.0156 and p=0.0115, respectively), and its detrimental effect on FSFI score was more pronounced in the IVRT compared to no-IVRT group (p=0.0486). Conclusions: Compared to SH alone, receipt of adjuvant IVRT was generally not associated with poorer SF or HS.