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By Megan Rauscher
Thu Feb 9, 11:23 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men with recurrent or advanced prostate
cancer may be put on hormone therapy to block testosterone production
in an effort to halt or slow the growth of the tumor. However, new
research shows, this may put them at increased risk for developing
insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar levels, which can affect
heart health.
These complications of what doctors call androgen-deprivation therapy
or ADT may contribute to the high rate of heart disease in men with
prostate cancer, Baltimore-based investigators report in the journal
Cancer.
Roughly half of men who develop prostate cancer die of other, unrelated
causes, explain Dr. Shehzad Basaria from Johns Hopkins University and
colleagues. Heart disease is one of the most common causes of death in
men with prostate cancer.
In a study of 53 men with prostate cancer, the researchers found that
those treated with testosterone-lowering ADT for at least one year were
more resistant to the action of insulin - the body's key
sugar-regulating hormone - and had higher glucose levels than men who
had only received local surgery and/or radiation and had normal
testosterone levels, and age-matched healthy men with normal
testosterone levels.
According to the study, 44 percent of men in the ADT group had blood
sugar levels greater than 126, which is among the criteria for the
diagnosis of diabetes. In contrast, only about 12 percent of men in the
other groups had blood sugar levels this high.
In an e-mail to Reuters Health, Basaria said: "If these observations
are confirmed in long-term prospective studies, then insulin resistance
and diabetes should be regarded as additional side effects of androgen
deprivation in these men."
In the meantime, the investigators think men with prostate cancer who
have received ADT for at least one year should be screened for high
blood sugar.
More study, they add, is needed to determine the value of anti-diabetes
drugs in men with prostate cancer.
SOURCE: Cancer, February 1, 2006.