Evaluation of sexual life quality and vaginal dose-volume relationship in female rectal cancer patients treated with pelvic radiotherapy.

Authors

Gul Kanyilmaz, Hatice Halis, Ozlem Ay, Oztun Temelli, Eda Yirmibesoglu Erkal, Durmus Etiz, Haldun Sukru Erkal

Published in

Indian journal of cancer. Volume 63. Issue 1. Pages 76-81. Jan 01, 2026. Epub Jun 09, 2026.

Abstract

There are very limited studies examining the sexual dysfunction in female rectal cancer treated with curative chemoradiotherapy (CRT). So, we aimed to evaluate the self-related sexual life quality and vaginal dose-volume relationship in female rectal cancer patients.
The patients who had been treated with chemoradiotherpay between January 2012 and January 2019 were included. Vaginal contouring was performed according to the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group female pelvic normal tissue contouring atlas. Sexual functioning was evaluated by the European Organization for Research and Treatment Quality of life Questionnaire for Sexual Function Modules (EORTC QOL).
Fourty five disease-free female patients volunteered to participate in this study were evaluated. The mean total EORTC QOL score of patients was 19.44 points. The score was <19.44 points accepted as worse sexual functioning and ≥19.44 points accepted as better sexual functioning. We did not find any relationship between sexual functioning and radiotherapy sequence, radiotherapy technique, and total radiotherapy doses. The proximity to anal verge and older patients age were the associated factors for worse sexual functioning in female rectal cancer. Dmin, Dmean, V35, V40, V45, and V50 of vagina were the predictive factors for sexual functioning. According to multivariate regression analyses only the primary tumor distance to anal verge ( P = 0.01), and V50 ( P = 0.02) of vagina were the predictive factors for sexual functioning.
Sexual dysfunctions in female rectal cancer were associated with tumor distance to anal verge, patients age, Dmean, Dmin, and V35-50 of vagina in female rectal cancer treated with curative radiochemotherapy.

PMID:
42301660
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 16 Jun 2026.

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