Cialis aids prostate cancer sex function

Medicine & Health / Cancer

Dutch scientists say they have found a drug usually prescribed for erectile dysfunction in men increases the sexual function of prostate cancer survivors.

Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men. But after treatment, some patients report trouble achieving an erection sufficient for sexual activity -- a medical condition called erectile dysfunction or ED. In the Dutch study, physicians wanted to test whether the drug Tadalafil, which sells under the brand name Cialis, would help prostate cancer survivors with ED who were treated with three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy.

In what is believed the first randomized trial of its type, successful intercourse was reported in 48 percent of the survivors who took Tadalafil versus 9 percent of the men who were given placebo. There was also a reported improvement of the quality of erections in 67 percent of the patients, versus 20 percent of the placebo group.

The research conducted at the Erasmus MC-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center in Rotterdam is detailed in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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