Exercise improves sexual function for men with prostate cancer
Key takeaways:
- Exercise 3 days per week improved sexual function for men with prostate cancer vs. usual care.
- Exercise also improved fat mass and muscle strength.
Exercise improved erectile dysfunction compared with standard care among men with prostate cancer, according to study results published in JAMA Network Open.
Men who are concerned about sexual dysfunction should be offered exercise as a potential rehabilitation strategy after treatment, researchers concluded.
Sexual dysfunction is common after prostate cancer treatment. Management primarily includes pharmacological intervention; however, this often does not sufficiently address psychological or physical causes, according to study background.
“Our team of urologists, radiation oncologists, exercise physiologists [and] psycho-oncologists, as well as — and most importantly — our own patients expressed the critical need for this research question: How can we improve sexual function after prostate cancer treatments?” Daniel A. Galvão, PhD, FACSM, director of the Exercise Medicine Research Institute at Edith Cowan University in Australia, told Healio. “Most men report that they are not offered helpful interventions to support sexual function after prostate cancer treatments.”
Galvão and colleagues conducted a three-arm, single-center trial to investigate the effects of supervised, clinic-based exercise — with or without a brief psychosexual education and self-management intervention (PESM) — on sexual function in this patient population.
The study included 112 men (mean age, 66.3 years) with prostate cancer who either had completed or remained on treatment. All had expressed concern about sexual dysfunction.
The researchers randomly assigned participants to 6 months of group-based resistance and aerobic exercise performed 3 days per week (n = 39; 34.8%), the same exercise program with PESM (n = 36; 32.1%) or usual care (n = 37; 33%).
Sexual function assessed with the International Index of Erectile Function served as the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included body composition, physical function and muscle strength.
Results showed a 5.1-point improvement in mean International Index of Erectile Function scores in the exercise groups — from 4.8 at baseline to 9.9 at 6 months — compared with a 1-point improvement in the usual care group (mean adjusted difference, 3.5; 95% CI, 0.3-6.6).
However, data did not show a significant improvement in the mean adjusted difference for intercourse satisfaction (1.7; 95% CI, 0.1-3.2).
Other outcomes that favored exercise vs. usual care included significant improvements in fat mass (mean adjusted difference = –0.9 kg; 95% CI, –1.8 to –0.1) and chair rise performance (mean adjusted difference = –1.8 seconds; 95% CI, –3.2 to –0.5), as well as upper body mass strength (mean adjusted difference = 9.4 kg; 95% CI, 6.9-11.9) and lower body mass strength (mean adjusted difference = 17.9 kg; 95% CI, 7.6-28.2).
PESM did not confer additional benefit. Although this was a “low-intensity component” of the approach, researchers had thought PESM would lead to “a modest incremental effect” when combined with exercise, Galvão said.
“An hour of exercise three times a week can significantly improve sexual dysfunction in men with prostate cancer and should be included in their cancer survivorship plans,” Galvão told Healio. “Our team is examining the role of acute effects of exercise prior to radiation therapy to see if this can help its efficacy and even reduce size of tumors.”
For more information:
Daniel Galvão, PhD, FACSM, can be reached at d.galvao@ecu.edu.au.
Collapse