AUA 2008: Thompson releases updates on PCPT Trial, recommends finasteride use
Prof. Ian Thompson
Wednesday, 21 May 2008 - The use of finasteride should be recommended to men at risk for prostate cancer and current study results show no evidence that finasteride increases the risk of high grade prostate disease. This was the message of Prof. Ian Thompson, Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) principal investigator and professor and chair of urology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
“A man who is undergoing regular prostate cancer screening should be informed that he may reduce his risk of prostate cancer by about 25% with daily finasteride. This strategy, in a country where about 200,000 men each year are diagnosed would have substantial public health benefits,” said Thompson during a late-breaking news conference at the annual congress of the American Urological Association held in Orlando, Florida.
The PCPT is an intergroup effort in the USA managed by the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) in collaboration with the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB). Almost 19,000 men , aged over 55 years, and with normal digital rectal examination (DRE) and serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels of </=3.0 ng/ml were randomized to take finasteride (5 mg/day) or placebo (1 tablet/day). DRE and PSA have been determined yearly (PSA in a central laboratory).
Thompson said that the latest updated data provide “…convincing evidence that the reduced frequency of detected cancer is clinically significant.” He added that “the results…effectively eliminate the concern that finasteride caused an increase in aggressive cancers within the study period.”
Moreover, Thompson said that the risk of sexual dysfunction is not clinically significant and that there is reduced risk of BPH symptoms and complications.
