Should This Prostate Drug Be Used For Cancer Prevention?

Should the Proscar pill and various generic versions be used to prevent prostate cancer? This question will likely be debated extensively thanks to a new study clarifying decade-old concerns that the drug, known as finasteride, may boost the risk of developing aggressive, high-grade tumors. The issue was first raised in a 2003 study that found the drug lowered the risk of developing prostate cancer by 30 percent. As a result of that earlier study, the FDA never approved finasteride for preventing prostate cancer and, instead, required warnings on the product labeling to thwart an unapproved use. (The drug is approved to shrink enlarged prostates and male pattern baldness). Now, though, a follow-up study finds that survival rates were the same in men taking the drug and those who were given a placebo. The follow-up study, which was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, was undertaken to determine whether the drug could lower the risk of prostate cancer in men who were screened with annual PSA (prostate specific antigen) tests. The researchers tracked nearly 19,000 men for almost 18 years since they enrolled in the earlier trial and Social Security death records were reviewed. The data “showed that the use of finasteride over a period of seven years in a general population of men with a median age at study entry of 63.2 years reduced the risk of prostate cancer, but did not significantly affect mortality,” the researchers wrote. “…The 15-year rate of surviva...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs