Propecia Could Prevent Prostate Cancer

Written by Jamie Stowe | Wednesday, 25 August 2010 | There is 1 comment

There has been plenty of discussion regarding whether finasteride (the key ingredient of the hair loss medication Propecia) should be used to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. A study done in 2003 called the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial looked at 18,000 men and concluded that by using the finasteride it was possible to reduce the likelihood of men being diagnosed with prostate cancer by a statistically significant 25 percent.
 
Unfortunately this same research project seemed to show that while the number of men suffering from prostate cancer was reduced the risk of suffering from more dangerous prostate tumours was increased by 27 percent. This secondary finding was found to be flawed on further analysis however many doctors are unaware of this.

The point is that since finasteride is effective in reducing the likelihood of prostate cancer, men using the hair loss drug Propecia should be told that as well as regaining hair on their head they also have secondary positive side effects.

The problem is that if a doctor was to prescribe Propecia (or Proscar) purely as a method of reducing the likelihood of cancer of the prostate there would be no way to really know whether the treatment was successful in individual cases because there’s no way of knowing whether the patient in question was going to get prostate cancer in the first place.

Dr Linda Kinsinger from the Veterans Health Administration in America who led a new survey into the idea of chemoprevention explained that nearly 2/3 of clinical urologists and 80 percent of regular doctors said that they would never prescribe finasteride as a preventative treatment for prostate cancer.

If you have a family history of cancer of the prostate however it might be worth discussing the use of finasteride with your doctor. It’s not going to do you any harm and you have the added benefit of keeping your hair on your head!

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