The New England Journal of Medicine
e-mail icon  FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |    Advanced Search
Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe
 
Original Article
PreviousPrevious
Volume 352:154-164 January 13, 2005 Number 2
NextNext

Risk of Fracture after Androgen Deprivation for Prostate Cancer
Vahakn B. Shahinian, M.D., Yong-Fang Kuo, Ph.D., Jean L. Freeman, Ph.D., and James S. Goodwin, M.D.

 Sign up for free e-toc
 

This Article
-Full Text
- PDF
-PDA Full Text
-PowerPoint Slide Set
-Supplementary Material

Tools and Services
-Add to Personal Archive
-Add to Citation Manager
-Notify a Friend
-E-mail When Cited
-E-mail When Letters Appear

More Information
-PubMed Citation
ABSTRACT

Background The use of androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer has increased substantially over the past 15 years. This treatment is associated with a loss of bone-mineral density, but the risk of fracture after androgen-deprivation therapy has not been well studied.

Methods We studied the records of 50,613 men who were listed in the linked database of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program and Medicare as having received a diagnosis of prostate cancer in the period from 1992 through 1997. The primary outcomes were the occurrence of any fracture and the occurrence of a fracture resulting in hospitalization. Cox proportional-hazards analyses were adjusted for characteristics of the patients and the cancer, other cancer treatment received, and the occurrence of a fracture or the diagnosis of osteoporosis during the 12 months preceding the diagnosis of cancer.

Results Of men surviving at least five years after diagnosis, 19.4 percent of those who received androgen-deprivation therapy had a fracture, as compared with 12.6 percent of those not receiving androgen-deprivation therapy (P<0.001). In the Cox proportional-hazards analyses, adjusted for characteristics of the patient and the tumor, there was a statistically significant relation between the number of doses of gonadotropin-releasing hormone received during the 12 months after diagnosis and the subsequent risk of fracture.

Conclusions Androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer increases the risk of fracture.


Source Information

From the Departments of Internal Medicine (V.B.S., Y.-F.K., J.L.F., J.S.G.) and Preventive Medicine and Community Health (Y.-F.K., J.L.F., J.S.G.), and the Sealy Center on Aging (V.B.S., Y.-F.K., J.L.F., J.S.G.) — all at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.

Address reprint requests to Dr. Shahinian at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, John Sealy Annex, Rm. 4.200, 301 University Blvd., Galveston, TX 77555-0562, or at vbshahin{at}utmb.edu.

Full Text of this Article


This article has been cited by other articles:



HOME  |  SUBSCRIBE  |  SEARCH  |  CURRENT ISSUE  |  PAST ISSUES  |  COLLECTIONS  |  PRIVACY  |  HELP  |  beta.nejm.org

Comments and questions? Please contact us.

The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2008 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.