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March 14, 2006
Testosterone Replacement
Therapy and the Risk of Prostate Cancer. Is there a link?
Writing in the Canadian
Journal of Urology, Researcher Abraham Morgentaler of the
Division of Urology, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, says that "there
is an absence of scientific data supporting the concept that
higher testosterone levels are associated with an increased risk
of prostate cancer.
Specifically, no increased risk of
prostate cancer was noted in 1) clinical trials of testosterone
supplementation, 2) longitudinal population-based studies, or 3)
in a high-risk population of hypogonadal men receiving
testosterone treatment. Moreover, hypogonadal men have a
substantial rate of biopsy-detectable prostate cancer,
suggesting that low testosterone has no protective effect
against development of prostate cancer.
These results argue against
an increased risk of prostate cancer with testosterone
replacement therapy."
Morgentaler A.Testosterone
replacement therapy and prostate risks: where's the beef? Can J
Urol. 2006 Feb;13 Suppl 1:40-3.
Read the abstract
From our December 6,
2005 Newsletter
An article by Susan
Brink of the Los Angeles Times recently appeared in newspapers
around the country discussing the link between testosterone and
prostate cancer.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05313/602702.stm.
The article says "The belief that
testosterone increases the risk of prostate cancer is so widely
accepted that study after study that tries to show it and can't
keeps getting repeated over and over," says Dr. Abraham
Morgentaler, a Boston urologist and author of the 2004 review.
"People don't believe it."
Here is a press release from the
Harvard Medical School.
"Boston--January 2004, Harvard Medical School affiliate Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center--A retrospective analysis by
researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center published in
The New England Journal of Medicine found no causal
relationship between testosterone replacement and prostate
cancer or heart disease risk. The comprehensive review of 72
studies, addresses the current controversy about testosterone
replacement therapy and its potential health risks to men."
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