Alarming Results: Androgen-Deprivation in Early-Stage Prostate Cancer Patients May Not Influence Long-Term Survival

For decades, millions of men with early prostate cancer have been placed on drug therapy to suppress their production of testosterone, despite such significant side effects as impotence, diabetes and bone loss. Now a large new analysis has concluded that so-called androgen deprivation therapy does not extend the lives of these patients.

“There are so many side effects associated with this therapy, and really little evidence to support its use,” said Dr. Grace L. Lu-Yao, a researcher at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the lead author of the report, published on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. “I would say that for the majority of patients with localized prostate cancer, this is not a good option.”

Dr. Lu-Yao and her colleagues followed tens of thousands of men with early prostate cancer for as long as 15 years and found that those who received androgen deprivation therapy lived no longer on average than those who did not. The study joins a growing body of evidence indicating that for many men with early prostate cancer, avoiding testosterone-suppressing drugs altogether may be better than grappling with their potentially devastating toll.

Read the original news here: http://nyti.ms/U7OoM9

Source: The New York Times