Lori Brotto, PhD
The University of British Columbia
2022 Maxine & Julie Eisen Pilot Study Award
eSense Cancer: Adapting an online intervention for sexual health concerns to ovarian cancer
Sexual health concerns are common after treatment of ovarian cancer, yet effective and accessible treatments to manage those concerns are not available. Dr. Brotto’s team has developed an online program called eSense to psychologically address common sexual difficulties in women. In this project, she will recruit a group of ovarian cancer survivors to work through eSense and identify information, graphics, and skills that would be most relevant to ovarian cancer survivors. The research team will then make the recommended changes to eSense and develop eSense-Cancer, a version of the program optimized for ovarian cancer patients. Then, they will recruit a new group of 30 ovarian cancer survivors to work through eSense-Cancer, and the research team will measure how feasible users find the platform.
The findings will be used to plan a larger research study to evaluate how effective eSense-Cancer is for improving sexual symptoms and distress for ovarian cancer survivors. Completion of this work will provide a significant contribution to improving the quality of live for those affected by ovarian cancer.