Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Lake Success, NY
A. Kumar1, M. Akerman2, G. Wernicke3, and B. Parashar4; 1Northwell, Flushing, NY, 2Biostatistics Unit, Office of Academic Affairs, Northwell Health, Lake Success, NY, 3Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Department of Radiation Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, New York, NY, 4Northwell, Lake Success, NY
Purpose/Objective(s):Cancer diagnosis and treatment create stress in the lives of patients. The mental state of mindfulness is defined as awareness of the present moment while acknowledging and accepting ones feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. The objective of our study was to determine if patient’s baseline mindfulness predicts lower stress and improved erectile function in patients receiving radiation therapy (RT) for prostate cancer. Materials/
Methods: The study was IRB approved. Thirty consecutive patients with prostate cancer treated with RT were selected for this study (2023). In this initial screening study, we selected patients irrespective of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) use, a contributor to erectile dysfunction. The surveys included the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) to measure mindfulness, stress, and erectile function respectively. The PSS is scaled from 0-40 with 0-11, 12-15, and 16-40 scores as low, average, and high stress respectively. The MAAS is scored from 1-6 with 6 as most mindful. The IIEF-5 is an abbreviated five-item version about erectile function and intercourse satisfaction. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the association between each of 3 scores (p < 0.05 was significant). All analyses were performed using data management and decision management software. Results: Ninety surveys were received from 30 patients with prostate cancer. The median age was 71 years (range:55-86). Median Gleason score was 7 (range 69), median PSA was 11.8 (Range: 0.56-39.3). 10 patients were not on ADT at the time of survey while 20 were on ADT. 3 patients received post-operative RT while 1 patient received a combination of external beam RT and brachytherapy. Median PSS score was 10.5 (Range 1-20), median IIEF was 10.5 (Range 5-24) and median MAAS score was 5.4 (Range 3.67-6). There was a statistically significant negative correlation between MAAS total score and PSS total score (Pearson correlation coefficient = -0.397, p=0.033). There was not a statistically significant correlation between IIEF total score and PSS total score (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.053, p=0.779). There was not a statistically significant correlation between MAAS total score and IIEF total score (Pearson correlation coefficient = -0.049, p=0.801). Conclusion: In this novel study, mindfulness was correlated with less stress in patients with prostate cancer. In this unselected group of patients with 66.7% patients on ADT, there was no significant correlation of baseline mindfulness with erectile function or between stress and erectile function. We are planning a prospective study using mindfulness intervention to reduce stress that may impact erectile function in patients that are not on ADT.
