Hormone therapy for prostate cancer linked to heart disease

In an extensive study, the researchers at King's College London investigated the link between a number of hormone therapies and a wide range of heart problems.

The team studied more than 30,642 Swedish males with prostate cancer that had partially or fully spread. All the subjects had undergone a range of hormone therapy between 1997 and 2006.

The researchers tracked the men for an average of three years and monitored them for ischemic heart disease, heart attacks, heart failure and arrhythmia.

Increased risk in all heart problems
The researchers noted that irrespective of the kind of hormone therapy used, the prostate cancer patients had a 24 percent increased risk of a nonfatal heart attack, a 19 percent increased risk of arrhythmia, a 31 percent higher risk of ischemic heart disease, and a 26 percent increased risk of heart failure.

In addition, they faced a 28 percent elevated risk of having a fatal heart attack and a 21 percent increased chances of dying from heart disease.

Mieke Van Hemelrijck, a cancer epidemiologist at King’s College in London and the study’s lead researcher stated, “We found that prostate cancer patients treated with hormone therapy had an elevated risk of developing all of the individual types of heart problems and that they were more likely than normal to die from these diseases.

He further added, “If we have observed a causative effect, then for all hormone therapies put together, we estimate that compared with what’s normal in the general population, about 10 extra ischemic heart disease events a year will happen for every 1,000 prostate cancer patients treated with such drugs.”

A word of advise
Considering the major benefits of hormone treatment, which suppresses the production of the male hormone testosterone, causing prostate tumors to shrink or grow more slowly, the therapy cannot be done away with.

However, there is a need to develop a good strategy to handle the negative consequences. Keeping in mind the findings, it is vital that a patient with pre existing heart disease should be referred to a cardiologist before embarking on hormone therapy.

Helen Rippon, head of research management at Britain’s Prostate Cancer Charity said, “For the vast majority of men, the benefits of hormone therapy are absolutely clear. It can halt the disease or stop it for years.

"Clinicians always make decisions on a case-by-case basis, and this is one more piece of information for them to consider.”

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men after lung cancer. Nearly, 670,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer across the world.

The study was presented at the ECCO 15 – ESMO 34 cancer conference in Berlin. It was funded by the Swedish Research Council, the Stockholm Cancer Society, and Cancer Research UK.