{"id":261,"date":"2022-05-20T20:44:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T20:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/marshalllab\/?page_id=261"},"modified":"2026-02-04T01:05:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T01:05:36","slug":"our-mission","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/marshalllab\/our-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” disabled_on=”off|off|off” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”#000000″ locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_fullwidth_menu active_link_color=”#00aeef” dropdown_menu_bg_color=”#000000″ dropdown_menu_line_color=”#00aeef” dropdown_menu_text_color=”#FFFFFF” mobile_menu_bg_color=”#000000″ mobile_menu_text_color=”#FFFFFF” logo_max_width=”50%” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” menu_font=”Open Sans|700|||||||” menu_text_color=”#FFFFFF” background_color=”#000000″ text_orientation=”right” background_layout=”dark” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_fullwidth_menu][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_fullwidth_slider _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_image=”https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/marshalllab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/434\/2022\/04\/DM-Header-Image.jpg” parallax=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_slide heading=”Our Mission” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Open Sans||||||||” header_font_size=”50px” background_image=”https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/marshalllab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/434\/2022\/04\/DM-Header-Image.jpg” background_enable_image=”on” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_transition=”on”][\/et_pb_slide][\/et_pb_fullwidth_slider][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Mission Section” module_id=”mission” module_class=”mission-section” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” background_image=”https:\/\/labs.icahn.mssm.edu\/marshalllab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/434\/2022\/04\/DB-Backgroundimage-1024×562.jpg” parallax=”on” parallax_method=”off” overflow-x=”visible” overflow-y=”visible” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Heading Text” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”Open Sans|600|||||||” header_text_align=”left” header_text_color=”#000000″ header_2_font=”Open Sans|600|||||||” header_2_text_color=”#000000″ hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

WHY OUR RESEARCH MATTERS<\/h2>\n

[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text content_tablet=”” content_phone=”” content_last_edited=”on|phone” admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_font=”Open Sans|600|||||||” header_text_align=”left” header_text_color=”#000000″ hover_enabled=”0″ text_font_last_edited=”off|phone” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

The experience of sexual pleasure is essential to human sexuality across the lifespan, including for cancer survivors, and should receive equitable consideration for female, gender-diverse, and sexual minority persons.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Sexual activity is an individual\u2019s capacity for consensual and pleasurable sexual experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

This capacity rests on the intricate interplay between many factors including the hormonal, psychosocial, economic, legal and historical\/cultural, in addition to underlying functional sexual anatomy. For female, gender-expansive and sexual minority persons, basic anatomy itself is an oft overlooked and incompletely characterized keystone component of this complex ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Maintaining sexual health and the capacity for sexual activity after the biological, physiological, and psychosocial sequelae of cancer therapy can be fundamental to quality of life for cancer survivors.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the function of and damage to erectile tissues (including the bulboclitoris and nipple-areolar complex, which are primary organs responsible for sexual pleasure) in female and gender-diverse persons with cancer remains an under-represented scientific domain — so much so that the anatomic basis of orgasm has been largely omitted in cancer literature, toxicity measurement, and medical coding; rather, difficulty with orgasm after cancer treatment is attributed to psychogenic etiologies in female persons, despite the substantial damage of cancer treatments to the erectile tissues and associated nerves and vessels. In addition, endocrine transitions, particularly the menopausal transition (whether natural or treatment\u2011induced), introduce rapid shifts in estrogen, progesterone, and androgen signaling that alter genital and breast tissue integrity, vascular responsiveness, and sensory function. These hormonal changes can profoundly shape sexual function and may heighten susceptibility of erectile and pelvic tissues to injury from radiation and other cancer therapies, yet these mechanisms are poorly understood and seldom incorporated into trial endpoints or survivorship care.\u00a0 Similarly, damage to prostate sensation and capacity for anal-receptive intercourse and the role in sexual pleasure and sexual health in certain sexual-minority males have also been overlooked.<\/p>\n

In contrast, maintaining capacity for pleasurable sexual activity after cancer treatment via the study of male erectile tissue function has received sustained scientific, structural and financial investment, enabling accelerated scientific advancements, development of effective precision interventions, and access to advanced technologies to prevent and mitigate these toxicities.<\/p>\n

We have an opportunity to address these systemic and structural inequities. <\/em><\/p>\n

A more equitable framework for scientific and biomedical understanding of sexual health and capacity for sexual activity must move beyond penile-vaginal intercourse and reproductive capacity, and instead incorporate rather than omit the functional and physiologic anatomic basis for sexual pleasure, endocrine transitions, and therapy-related tissue injury for female, gender-diverse and sexual minority persons with cancer.<\/p>\n

Shifting the paradigm of sexual health for female, gender-diverse, and sexual minorities persons with cancer will<\/em>:<\/p>\n