New ACROBATIC-Affiliated Project Focuses on Sexual Health in Bladder Cancer Survivorship

ACROBATIC is pleased to welcome a new affiliated research project within CFA3: Survivorship.

The project, SPICE – Supporting Sexual Health in Bladder Cancer Patients: A Sequential Mixed-Methods Study, aims to develop and evaluate a patient-informed sexological intervention to support sexual health and wellbeing among patients treated for bladder cancer.

Sexual dysfunction and sexual distress are increasingly recognized as important survivorship issues in cancer care, yet bladder cancer patients remain an underserved group in both research and clinical practice. The SPICE project addresses this gap through a sequential mixed-methods design combining qualitative research, co-development of intervention components, and feasibility testing in clinical settings.

The study is led by a multidisciplinary collaboration across Denmark involving researchers and clinicians from Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus University, Aalborg University Hospital, Queen Ingrid’s Hospital in Greenland, and the Sexological Clinic in the Capital Region of Denmark.

The project is coordinated by PhD student Julie Fregerslev Krieger, MD, under the supervision of Associate Professor Charlotte Graugaard-Jensen, MD, PhD, together with Professor Jørgen Bjerggaard Jensen, MD, DMSc, Professor Annamaria Giraldi, MD, PhD, and Associate Professor Birgitte Schantz Laursen, RN, PhD.

By integrating patient perspectives into the development of sexual rehabilitation support, the SPICE project aims to strengthen survivorship care pathways and contribute to more holistic and patient-centred cancer rehabilitation.