Hormones For Prostate Cancer Up Dementia Risk

About half of the men diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States eventually end up with some kind of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), which suppresses testosterone and slows the progression of cancer. Now come researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, who, after studying almost a decade’s worth of data, have foun that men who are treated with ADT are twice as likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s, within five years, compared to prostate cancer patients who do not receive testosterone-lowering therapies. How might that work? The Boston Globe’s excellent health site STAT reports that researchers suggest that testosterone regulates how much amyloid protein is produced (the buildups in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s) and helps regulate amyloid degradation and destruction. It also decreases levels of brain inflammation, promotes growth and the ability of neurons to survive, and increases neural stem cells.