Drug & Device News

A study of men who took baldness-treatment drug finasteride for many years shows that the medication has a significant side benefit: It appears to reduce by 30% the chance of a man's developing' prostate cancer. Thompson, Ian M. Jr., et. al, “Long-Term Survival of Participants in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial,” N Engl J Med 2013; 369:603-610 Aug. 15, 2013DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1215932. The connection between finasteride and prostate health is not completely unexpected, as men have been prescribed the drug for years for reducing the size of enlarged prostate glands, athough this off-label use has not been approved by the FDA. The results of this latest study found that 14.9% of men who did not take finasteride developed prostate cancer, while only 10.5% of the group who took the drug were so afflicted. This suggests that men may want to take the medication as a preventive measure, particularly if they are at a higher risk for the cancer, even though the kind of prostate cancer apparently prevented by finasteride use is the low-grade type that is not likely to lead to death. Preventing this type is worthwhile because the damage done to men who are treated for prostate cancer that is not likely to shorten their lives often leaves them impotent and/or incontinent.