Testosterone Won’t Increase Risk Of Aggressive Prostate Cancer

For years, experts have debated the likelihood that testosterone therapy will increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. That’s because, as Science Daily points out, standard therapy for advanced prostate cancer decreased tumor growth with drugs that drastically reduce rather than increase male hormones. Now come researchers from the NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, who are convinced that the best thing men can do is keep testosterone levels balanced and within a normal range. Science Daily reports that the researchers, who analyzed more than a quarter-million medical records of mostly white men in Sweden, found that men prescribed testosterone for longer than a year had no overall increase in risk of prostate cancer and, in fact, had their risk of aggressive disease reduced by 50 percent. The researchers found an increase (of 35 percent) in prostate cancer in men shortly after starting therapy, the increase was only in prostate cancers that were at low risk of spreading and was likely a result from more doctor visits and biopsies performed early on. They noted that the long-term reduction in aggressive disease was found only in men after more than a year of testosterone use, and the risk of prostate cancer did not differ between gels and other types of preparations.