HRT patches assist in prostate cancer patient care

Preliminary results have indicated that hormone replacement patches similar to those used by menopausal women are an effective way to help men with advanced prostate cancer.

Small-scale tests showed that the female hormones used to reduce male testosterone production and block its effects were more effectively delivered by the patches and that there were fewer side effects.

Researchers who carried out a preliminary trial in London, reported that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) led to a regression of disease in 20 patients and improved quality of life.

The male hormone testosterone exacerbates prostate cancer and when the cancer spreads reducing the impact of the hormone helps to slow the progress of the disease.

Normal hormone treatments to suppress hormones when used in male patients have several undesirable side effects, including, impotence, osteoporosis, anaemia, hot flushes and breast tissue growth.

The researchers at Hammersmith Hospital and Imperial College found that within three weeks HRT patches reduced testosterone levels in the men to a point normally only achieved by castration, a procedure which is sometimes carried out.

Also, side effects were less severe and the quality of life of patients was improved.

Prostate cancer generally hits men in their sixties or seventies, but increasingly numbers of middle-aged patients are presenting with the disease.

The second most common cancer in men, over 24,500 people are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year in the UK – of these some 50% will die from the disease.

(SP)