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Active Surveillence and Avodart

Beau2
Posts: 193
Joined: Sep 2010
Jan 29, 2012 - 9:19 am

Guys on Active Surveillance, or contemplating AS, may want to go to the following link and read the article. Seems Avodart (dutasteride) can significantly slow disease progression.

"Our trial is the first study to show the benefits of use of a 5α-reductase inhibitor to reduce the need for aggressive treatment in men undergoing active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer...delaying their time to pathological progression and initiation of primary therapy."

Had I known this three years ago I may have considered AS a bit more seriously … (probably not, I was really a chicken and just wanted the cancer out of me).

I have a friend on Avodart for treatment of benign prostate tissue left behind after a RP and it seems to be working very well. He had been scheduled for SRT when a second opinion came up with the benign tissue idea and they put him on a trial treatment with Avodart. That was over two years ago and he’s been doing well (PSA went and stayed down) ever since.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240752.php
VascodaGama's picture
VascodaGama
Posts: 1256
 Joined: Nov 2010
Jan 30, 2012 - 7:35 am
5-ARI; marvel drugs

Beau

Thanks for the link. I believe in this drugs’ ability in “cleaning” the PSA from the portions produced by benign tissues (BPH), therefore providing a more “pure” PSA related to cancer. Nevertheless this drug is part of a controversy with regards to its obscure effect on the PSA. Such controversies were reinforced by the disapproval of FDA to use the drug in cancer treatment matters. They have given "instructions" on the contrary. You can read about the controversy "incriminating" the 5-ARI drugs with a more aggressive form of PCa;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18425978
http://www.healthboards.com/boards/cancer-prostate/854993-finasteride-avodart-risk-high-grade-cancer-fdas-unsound-awful-decision.html

The “REDEEM randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial” (your article refers) was sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline which is the owner of the drug. This also obscures the relevance of the study.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22277570

In any case, some other trials with regards to the same principle were done before showing identical results. Here is a link;
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20357281

The best to you.
VGama
Beau2
Posts: 193
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