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Finasteride provides long-term prostate cancer prevention
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Finasteride appeared effective in long-term prostate cancer prevention even after patients stopped taking the drug, according to findings published in Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Earlier data from the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial showed 7 years of finasteride — a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor that inhibits the development of androgens that fuel malignancy — reduced the risk for prostate cancer by 25% among men aged 55 years or older. However, these data suggest the protective effect of finasteride persisted through 16 years of follow-up.
“These findings raise the intriguing possibility that 7 years of finasteride can reduce prostate cancer diagnoses over a much longer period than was previously shown,” Joseph M. Unger, PhD, health services researcher at Fred Hutchinson Research Cancer Center, Seattle, said in a press release. “It’s a low-cost generic drug, with minimal side effects, that can have a benefit that lasts long after men stop taking it.”
The researchers linked the clinical records of patients who participated in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial — a trial of 18,880 men randomly assigned to receive finasteride or placebo — with Medicare claims. Unger and colleagues used multivariable Cox regression to determine time to prostate cancer in time frames of less than 6.5 years, 6.5 to 7.5 years, and more than 7.5 years.
Median follow-up was 16 years.
Patients assigned finasteride experienced a 21.1% lower risk for prostate cancer (HR = 0.79; 95% CI, 0.74-0.84).
The benefit of finasteride appeared more pronounced during the first 7.5 years (HR = 0.71; 95% CI, 0.66-0.77). However, even after 7.5 years, patients in the finasteride arm demonstrated no increased risk for prostate cancer (HR = 1.1; 95% CI, 0.96-1.26).
“Using an innovative linkage between the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial and Medicare claims, we found that finasteride provides a substantial reduction in risk for prostate cancer through a median of 16 years of follow-up,” the researchers wrote. “Together with prior research, finasteride emerges as a low-cost generic drug with minimal side effects, a reduction in prostate cancer diagnoses during 7 years of finasteride use that is maintained after completion and no beneficial or harmful impact on survival.” – by Andy Polhamus
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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