The use of hormone deprivation therapy has no impact on the survival of patients with prostate cancer. At 15, she remains very good with or without treatment.
Hormone therapy does not improve survival in prostate cancer. This is established by a study published on July 14 in the JAMA Internal Medicine. At 15, researchers have not observed any particular benefit from anti-androgens compared to patients who do not take them.
Anti-androgen-based hormone therapy consists of blocking the functioning of testosterone. This male hormone is necessary for the growth of prostate cancer cells. Specific drugs, LHRH analogues, block the action of these hormones, but they have serious side effects. Anti-androgen therapy can be given “for a period of time to a patient who is taking LHRH analogues in order to reduce the worsening of their symptoms and the pain caused by these drugs,” reports the National Cancer Institute (INCa).
An absence of effects already known
As part of this study, researchers evaluated the impact of antiandrogens on the 15-year survival of patients with stage T1 or T2 prostate cancer, which has not spread beyond prostate. Of the 66,700 patients followed for 9 years, the presence or absence of such a treatment had no impact on survival at 15 years, which was also very good (90.6%).
THE’French urology association (AFU) does not particularly recommend anti-androgens in the case of prostate cancer of stage T1 or T2: they do not show “any benefit in terms of overall survival” and the absence of impact on survival. has been known for a long time. As for high-risk cancers, they should not be treated only with hormone therapy, the Belgian College of Oncology concluded on July 3.
Lead author of this study, Dr Grace Yu-Lao, concludes that physicians should exercise caution when considering the use of anti-androgen hormone therapy, due to its many potential side effects, from impotence to diabetes through osteoporosis.
Hormone therapy is certainly not beneficial in terms of survival. But its virtues on the quality of life of patients with advanced forms of cancer are, on the other hand, undisputed. Such treatment is often used as a palliative, both to relieve the pain and to control the symptoms of the disease.
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