Abstract P2-03-01: Sexual health in unpartnered women after breast cancer: Report from a joint analysis of two international multi-site prospective cohorts of young breast cancer survivors
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Objectives: Sexual dysfunction is a distressing potential side effect of breast cancer (BC) treatment. However, little is known about the experience of unpartnered young women whose concerns may differ from partnered peers. Helping Ourselves, Helping Others: The Young Women’s Breast Cancer Study (YWS-HOHO) investigates gaps in knowledge about young BC survivors in 2 multi-site prospective cohorts. Methods: The North American (USA, Canada) and European (Italy, Switzerland) YWS-HOHO cohorts jointly enrolled 1602 women. Participants were ≤40 yrs. and diagnosed with stage 0-IV BC <6 months before enrollment. Serial surveys were completed every 6 months for the first 3 yrs. and annually thereafter. Surveys included assessment of body image, sexual health, menopausal symptoms (using the CARES and BCPT scales, score range: 0-4, with higher scores indicating greater severity) and menopausal concerns. Unpartnered and partnered women were compared at baseline and 2-yrs. post-enrollment using T-tests. Results: A total of 1342 women were included in this analysis (1054 from N.A., 288 from Europe). The median age at enrollment was 37 yrs. (IQR 33-39), 81% of women had stage 0-2 disease. Most women (n = 1000, 74.5%) had received chemotherapy, 63.8% (n = 856) had undergone mastectomy. At baseline, 13% of women were unpartnered (n=180). Unpartnered young women reported significantly higher body image concerns than partnered peers at baseline (mean CARES body image scale 1.28 vs 1.09, p-value=0.04) but not at 2-yrs (1.17 vs 1.08, p-value=0.35). Concern about general sexual function was comparable for unpartnered and partnered women at baseline (1.97 vs 1.81, p-value=0.11) and at 2-yrs (1.43 vs 1.42, p-value=0.92). For example, >47% of both unpartnered and partnered women endorsed a loss of sexual interest at baseline and >36% of both groups also at 2-yrs. Unpartnered women reported fewer vaginal symptoms (e.g., vaginal dryness, pain with intercourse) than partnered women at both timepoints (mean BCPT vaginal scale at baseline 0.53 vs 0.83, p-value<0.001; at 2-yrs 0.74 vs 1.01, p-value=0.002), while there were no differences in hot flashes and urinary symptoms at either timepoint. Greater than 50% of both unpartnered and partnered women reported concern about becoming post-menopausal at both timepoints. Approximately half of unpartnered women reported difficulty with dating at both timepoints, including difficulty with initiating contact with potential partners and difficulty with discloser about their cancer experience. Conclusion and Implications: Unpartnered young BC survivors report similar levels of sexual dysfunction as partnered peers as well as distinct concerns about body image and dating. These findings underscore the need to routinely address sexual health regardless of partner status and to better investigate specific concerns of unpartnered women such as dating and relationship-building. Citation Format: Sharon Bober, Eleonora Pagan, Monica Ruggeri, Shari Gelber, Vincenzo Bagnardi, Ann Partridge, Olivia Pagani, Shoshana Rosenberg, Karin Ribi. Sexual health in unpartnered women after breast cancer: Report from a joint analysis of two international multi-site prospective cohorts of young breast cancer survivors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2024; 2024 Dec 10-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2025;31(12 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-03-01.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".