Prostate Cancer Treatment Increases Fracture Risk

By Stacie Overton, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent

NEW ORLEANS (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research presented at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in New Orleans shows a common treatment for prostate cancer significantly increases the risk of fractures.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston studied men with prostate cancer who were being treated with gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists. This is known as androgen deprivation therapy. Androgens, which are produced mostly in the testicles, cause prostate cancer cells to grow. Lowering androgen levels can make prostate cancer shrink or grow more slowly. However, hormone therapy will not cure the cancer and is often used when other treatments such as surgery or radiation are not good options.

After comparing the fracture incidence of more than 3,800 men with prostate cancer who received hormone therapy to more than 7,700 men with prostate cancer who did not receive hormone therapy, researchers found a significantly higher rate of fractures among those on hormone therapy.

The hormone group was about 40-percent more likely to have a fracture. The incidence of fractures in the hormone group was 83 percent compared to 56 percent among those who did not receive hormone therapy.

Matthew Smith, M.D., Ph.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital, says, “We were surprised by the strength and consistency of the association between [hormone therapy] and fractures … Screening for osteoporosis and interventions to prevent fractures should become standard care.”

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SOURCE: Stacie Overton at the 40th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in New Orleans, June 5-8, 2004