How does head and neck cancer affect sexuality?

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  How does head and neck cancer affect sexuality?

• IRAS ID

  288364

• Contact name

  Thomas Schröder

• Contact email

  thomas.schroder@nottingham.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Nottingham

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  N/A, N/A

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 3 months, 20 days

• Research summary

  Summary of Research
  This research plans to investigate how the experience of head and neck cancer might affect a person’s sexuality. Evidence suggests that those who experience cancer can find that their sexuality is negatively affected. This study also plans to investigate whether certain ways of coping can affect how someone experiences changes to their sexuality. Finally, the study plans to investigate what people who have survived cancer need in terms of psychological support and information around sexuality.

  This issue needs to be investigated for those with head and neck cancer. This is so that those who live with and beyond cancer can be supported to enjoy a higher quality of life, which sexuality is an important part of. Individuals who have had or are currently experiencing head and neck cancer can participate in the study.
  This research will be funded by the University of Nottingham and participants will be recruited in a number of different ways. This will include being asked to participate by healthcare professionals they know. Also, some social media pages will share links to the study and head and neck cancer support charities will help recruit through their mailing list.
  There will be two parts of the study. The first part will ask participants to complete 4 online questionnaires and give some personal information as a one-off experience. These questionnaires will ask about sexual function and satisfaction, coping styles and quality of life. Participants can choose to complete just this phase but will also be given the option to express interest in the second part of the study. The second part will ask participants to attend, virtually or in person at a convenient location, a one-off interview and will ask about their sexuality, their coping styles and what they would like from healthcare professionals. I

  Summary of Results
  The following study was carried out between 2021-2022: "How does head and neck cancer affect sexuality?". A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the study, as well as those who supported with recruitment including 'The Swallows' and 'Heads 2gether' alongside NHS clinicians. The study was primarily conducted by Linda McCabe (Trainee Clinical Psychologist) and supervised by Dr Anna Tickle, Dr Nima Moghaddam, and Dr Sanchia Biswas. The research sponsor was the University of Nottingham. Three people who had experience of Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) offered their thoughts on different stages of the study to make sure that it was accurate and well thought through.

  The study involved two stages: a questionnaire phase and then, if people were happy to take part, an interview phase. All of this took place remotely due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Previous research showed that Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) survivors are likely to experience a negatively impact on thier sexuality after HNC. Sexuality includes things like desire for and interest in sex, sexual function, sexual satisfaction, and someone's sense of themself as a sexual being. Sexuality is important to wellbeing and unmet sexuality needs following cancer can lead to people feeling more distress. There is farless research in relation to HNC’s impact on sexuality in comparison to other cancers. This is surprising as HNC is the seventh most common cancer and can lead to lots of difficulties.

  This study investigated the impact of HNC upon sexuality, whether any particular coping responses (e.g. avoidant coping) were linked with sexuality and quality of life outcomes, and what people felt their support needs were, if any, for support around sexuality. 60 participants took part in an online survey and 18 participants completed interviews.

  Findings support previous literature, showing that for many of this study's participants, sexuality is negatively affected by HNC. This study showed that for those classified as clinically impaired in relation to sexuality (i.e. a serious negative impact on their sexuality), this was related to HNC rather than other factors such as age. The themes developed from interviews with participants showed a series of events where sexuality is necessarily deprioritised during treatment, sexuality is not discussed by professionals, there is still an impact of altered sexual behaviour which can be understood as due to either psychological or physical barriers, and participants respond by attempting to rebuild/renavigate their sexuality. Relationships were not found between response styles (e.g. avoidant coping) and sexuality outcomes. A clear support need was identified for greater physical, practical, and psychological support around sexuality.

  This study shows that HNC patients would benefit from being provided with HNC-specific information to help them with their sexuality and this would assist professionals with sensitive discussions of sexuality. The timings of such discussions must be sensitive to the fact that individuals have to deprioritise sexuality during active treatment. Future research will be suggested to help get the opinions of healthcare professionals about the barriers they face when discussing sexuality with individuals with HNC.

• REC name

  East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  20/EE/0257

• Date of REC Opinion

  22 Dec 2020

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion