T therapy safe in large prostate Ca series

San Francisco-It appears to be safe for clinicians to consider testosterone therapy for symptomatic men with testosterone deficiency and a history of prostate cancer, according to new data presented at the AUA annual meeting in San Francisco.

In the largest series to date, investigators found that prostate cancer recurrence rates were consistent with previously published recurrence/progression rates for the various forms of treatment for localized prostate cancer and for men on active surveillance.

Lead study author Abraham Morgentaler, MD, associate clinical professor of urology at Harvard Medical School, Beth Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, said these new findings provide valuable and reassuring information for clinicians and patients with symptomatic testosterone deficiency and a history of prostate cancer.

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“There is growing evidence that [testosterone therapy] is not as risky as we once thought, and I think it is time to consider offering it to a larger population of men with prostate cancer who are symptomatic from testosterone deficiency,” Dr. Morgentaler said in an interview with Urology Times.

When he and his co-authors looked at men with prostate cancer who were on active surveillance or had received radiation or radical prostatectomy, there were no significant differences in recurrence rates or progression rates in men who received testosterone therapy, Dr. Morgentaler reported. However, the authors noted some of the data are still rather preliminary. Among 190 men, the progression rate (higher Gleason score) in men on testosterone was 10.6% in 47 men on active surveillance with >4 years mean follow-up and there were no recurrences in five mentreated with radical prostatectomy followed by salvage radiation, with a mean follow up of >2 years.

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