Cancer Survivorship

Abstract

The definition of cancer survivorship is varied. Survivorship is defined by Macmillan Cancer Support [1], as ‘someone who has completed initial cancer management with no evidence of apparent disease’. According to the National Cancer Institute in the United States of America (USA), cancer survivorship encompasses the “physical, psychosocial, and economic issues of cancer from diagnosis until the end of life.” [2]. The National Coalition of Cancer Survivors defines being a survivor as ‘from diagnosis of cancer onwards’ [2]. The definition has been extended to include ‘the experience of living with, through and beyond a diagnosis’. Patients in the proposed study who fit within the spectrum of survivorship having had a robotic radical prostatectomy. One side effect of this procedure is erectile dysfunction (psychosexual concerns), the study focus.