Prostate cancer study omits the most important details

Someday we’ll look back at how men with prostate cancer were treated by the medical profession and gasp.

And one of the most barbaric therapies of all is the use of drugs that block or stop testosterone. Another name for these treatments is “chemical castration.”

If it sounds brutal, it is. Many guys who have been sold on the idea by their doctors have fast regretted it. And after learning about the long-term and even short-term side effects of snuffing out testosterone, many patients are refusing this treatment altogether.

Big Pharma, however, doesn’t take “No” for an answer.

So what better way to promote these drugs, called “anti-androgen” and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), than to tell men with recurring prostate cancer that these meds will prolong their lives?

But if only it were that simple.

Case (not) closed
At the beginning of February, a new study was released — one that plans to “change medical practice.”

It involved over 700 men with cancer who had surgery to remove their prostates, but later were found to have rising PSA numbers.

All the men were given six weeks of radiation, with half the group also taking a super-high dose of bicalutamide, a testosterone-blocking drug, for two full years.

While the researchers reported “a real difference” in the 12-year survival rate of the men who took the anti-androgen drug (reported as five percent), there’s a lot we’re not being told.

First, the possible side effects were pretty much glossed over as quickly as possible. The New York Times briefly mentioned breast development, hot flashes, “sexual problems” and “other side effects.” But here’s what they didn’t talk about: diabetes, lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis and severe liver damage (which can be fatal).

And although the Times made a big point of telling us the research was paid for by the National Cancer Institute, it left out entirely the fact that AstraZeneca, which makes the drug (under the brand name Casodex), also tossed its money in the hat for this study.

Along with that, some of the researchers sound like a Pharma land who’s who, having received fees, grants and consulted not only with AstraZeneca, but also Amgen, Sanofi and Bayer, to name just a few.

But perhaps the biggest omission was to conveniently forget about the very real controversy surrounding whether eliminating testosterone is a slam-dunk way to help men with prostate cancer live longer in the first place.

It’s not. Not by a long shot.

Over ten years ago, a study discovered that men who had the lowest levels of testosterone appear to have a higher risk of prostate cancer.

And over 20 years ago, a study from the University of Chicago found that testosterone may help you fight cancer by causing tumors to shrink. But even scarier are some findings from the University of Rochester Medical Center. They found an increase in prostate cancers metastasizing when ADT and anti-androgen treatments are combined — and that’s despite the fact that PSA numbers may be dropping.

And if you needed any more reason to think twice before submitting to this brutal therapy, consider this.

Two years ago researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University found, after looking at over 16,000 men with prostate cancer, that those on ADT therapy more than doubled their risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

And last year the same group released the findings of a second, long-term study involving a decade’s worth of data that not only confirmed that Alzheimer’s risk number but found that other types of dementia increased as well.

Those findings, while shocking, really weren’t all that surprising, as testosterone actually protects the brain in a variety of ways. The researchers commented at the time how these anti-hormone drugs can also harm blood vessels, causing problems with brain function.

So, if your doctor is talking about starting you up on one or more of these drugs, it’s definitely time to get a second opinion.

Because no matter what shiny new study comes out about these treatments, the science is still far from being settled.

“Hormone blockers can prolong life if prostate cancer recurs” Denise Grady, February 1, 2017, The New York Times, mobile.nytimes.com