Common hormonal treatments linked to abnormal heart rhythms and sudden death in men being treated for prostate cancer

Treatments for advanced prostate cancer that suppress testosterone, a hormone (also called an androgen) that drives the malignant cells to grow and spread, are collectively referred to as androgen deprivation therapies, or ADT. These therapies can significantly extend lifespans in men who have the disease, but they also have a range of challenging side effects. In 2004, Dr. Marc Garnick, Gorman Brothers Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and editor in chief of HarvardProstateKnowledge.org, reported that in some men, an ADT drug called aberelix lengthens the time it takes for cardiac cells to recharge electrically between beats. Known as the QT interval, this measure is determined with the use of an electrocardiogram. Prolonged QT intervals are worrying because in rare instances they induce potentially fatal heart rhythms. In fact, the FDA has withdrawn several approved medications from the market after they were associated with drug-induced lengthening of the QT interval, leading to documented cases of either fatal or nonfatal cardiac arrhythmias. The decision to withdraw a drug in these cases is based on the strength of the evidence linking to these sorts of cardiac outcomes. Now a French research team is reporting that many widely used forms of ADT are linked to these sorts of cardiac side effects and their potential consequences. The study was led by Dr. Joe-Elie Salem, a cardio-oncologist at Sorbonne University in Par...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Living With Prostate Cancer Men's Health Prostate Health Prostate Knowledge Treatments HPK Source Type: blogs