Treatment with finasteride and prostate cancer survival - Abstract

Objective: This study compared survival after diagnosis of prostate cancer (PC) in men previously treated with finasteride, in men previously treated with α-adrenoceptor antagonists, in men treated with both, and in men who had received neither type of medication.

Material and Methods: In total, 3791 men diagnosed with PC in northern Denmark were identified. The region's prescription database was used to identify all men prescribed finasteride and α-adrenoceptor antagonists and those who had received neither medication during the period 1989-2001. Among men with a diagnosis of PC, overall survival and disease-specific survival were assessed after diagnosis using Cox proportional hazards regression. The risk of being diagnosed with non-localized PC was estimated using conditional logistic regression.

Results: The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for PC death and overall death after treatment with finasteride was 0.93 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.76-1.14] and 0.92 (95% CI 0.77-1.10), respectively. Treatment with α-adrenoceptor antagonists was associated with a reduced risk of PC death and overall death (HR 0.78, 95% CI 0.67-0.90, and 0.82, 95% CI 0.73-0.93, respectively. The risk of being diagnosed with non-localized PC was increased for men taking finasteride (odds ratio 1.14, 95% CI 1.01-1.29) per 100 defined daily doses.

Conclusions: Treatment with finasteride prior to a diagnosis of PC did not affect PC-specific survival, but increased the risk of being diagnosed with non-localized disease. Treatment with α-adrenoceptor antagonists was associated with better cause-specific survival and lower risk of non-localized disease.

Written by:
Kjellman A, Friis S, Granath F, Gustafsson O, Sørensen HT, Akre O.   Are you the author?
Department of Clinical Science, Intervention, and Technology.

Reference: Scand J Urol Nephrol. 2012 Nov 9. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.3109/00365599.2012.737366


PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23137166

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