Abstract
OBJECTIVE. Finasteride affects both prostate cancer risk and body weight. We examined whether, during 7 years of finasteride treatment, the magnitude of weight change was associated with the diagnosis of no, low-, or high-grade cancer. METHODS. Data are from 10,057 participants in Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), a randomized trial of finasteride for primary prevention of prostate cancer. Mixed linear models were used to calculate percentage change in weight per year, controlling for demographic and health-related covariates. RESULTS. Weight gain was modestly lower in the finasteride compared to placebo arms (0.14 vs. 0.16% per year, P < 0.025). On the placebo arm, there was no association of weight gain with cancer outcomes. In the finasteride arm, annual weight gain among men without cancer was 0.14%, and among men with cancer ranged from 0.01% for those diagnosed with high-grade cancer following a clinical indication for biopsy (P = 0.03 vs. no cancer) to 0.25% among men diagnosed with low-grade cancer at the end of the trial with no indication for biopsy (P = 0.002 vs. no cancer). CONCLUSIONS. In finasteride-treated men, there are significant associations between prostate cancer outcomes and weight gain, which suggest that there are common or closely related individual-level factors that affect both treatment responses. This supports the hypothesis that there are genetic characteristics and/or environmental exposures that affect finasteride outcomes which, when identified, could be used to target men most likely to benefit from finasteride treatment.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 281-286 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Prostate |
Volume | 68 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 15 2008 |
Keywords
- Finasteride
- Prostate cancer
- Weight gain
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Urology