Cancer survivorship affected quality of life in young male survivors

Young men who survived cancer had self-reported impaired quality of life, greater fatigue and reduced sexual function, and these impairments were worse in men with hypogonadism.

Researchers examined the relationship between androgen deficiency, quality of life, sexual function, self-esteem and fatigue in men aged 25 to 45 years who survived cancer (n=176) and compared them to men who had no history of malignant disease or testosterone therapy (n=213).

Survivors of cancer had impaired quality of life in all domains of the Short-Form Health Survey and Aging Male Scale and reported more fatigue than men without cancer.

Sexual drive, arousal, activity, orgasm quality and general sexual function were worse for the survivor group when compared with the control group. No difference was noted for satisfaction with partner relationship. Level of detection of psychiatric disorder and perception of self-esteem were also not different between groups.

Quality of life, self-esteem, fatigue and sexual function were worse among those survivors of cancer with hypogonadism (defined as testosterone ≥10 nmol/L), according to the researchers. However, even those cancer survivors with normal testosterone in the top quartile range (>19.4 nmol/L), reported scores lower than those reported in the control group.

Greenfield DM. Cancer. 2010;doi:10.1002/cncr.24898.