The findings from new research conducted at King's College in London could make doctors think twice before prescribing the standard hormone treatment to men with prostate cancer, particularly if they are at risk of heart disease.
More than 670,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer globally every year, making it the second-most common cancer in men, after lung cancer. In the U.S., over 185,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer annually according to the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance, the national trade organization. About 600,000 men are being treated with endocrine therapies for prostate cancer worldwide.
Researchers studied 30,000 men in Sweden with prostate cancer who received hormone therapy between 1997 and 2006. They compared the rate of heart problems in those patients to the rate in the general Swedish population. Prostate cancer patients had a 28 percent higher relative chance of having a fatal heart attack and a 21 percent increased chance of dying from heart disease.
While these risks were still low in absolute terms, the researchers estimated that the hormone therapies would cause heart problems including a heart attack at the rate of about 10 persons for every 1,000 prostate cancer patients.
Previous studies have found hormone therapy given to prostate cancer patients with a history of heart disease increases their chances of dying. Scientists believe that male-produced testosterone has some protective effect on the heart. Thus, hormones that interfere with testosterone could be deadly.
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