Study shows reduction in death for men with intermediate-grade prostate cancer

Hey Class,

I thought this article directly tied into our focus. It discusses the the recent research of a short-term hormone therapy given in combination with radiation therapy to men with early-stage prostate cancer patients. The result was that it increased their chances of living longer compared to treatment with radiation therapy alone, according to a clinical trial supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

I recall us mentioning an integrated approach to cancer treatment, which may include but isn't limited to adopting healthier eating habits. This experiment doesn't state what the eating habits of the patients were, however, it was still an integrated approach of both short-term hormone therapy and radiation.

The article states " Patients were randomly assigned to treatment with radiation alone or radiation plus short-term androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) using drugs that drastically lowered their natural production of testosterone, a hormone which feeds prostate cancer growth." From this observation we can infer that the presence of testosterone hormone is correlated to the chance of living. The greater amount of testosterone present the lower the chances of living is. This is an observation and not an experiment, therefore, we cannot say high levels testosterone causes cancer. They are just negatively correlated, where the increase of testosterone produces a decrease in life expectancy.

To find more information about the testosterone and cancer correlation like dug a little deeper and found this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110419121353.htm. The article states, "This study, involving 13 symptomatic testosterone deficient men who also had untreated prostate cancer, suggests this traditional view is incorrect, and that testosterone treatment in men does not cause rapid growth of prostate cancer." The conducted experiment supports that testosterone doesn't cause the prostate cancer. So, if testosterone doesn't directly affect the life expectancy of prostate cancer patients why did the hormone therapy show an improvement of life expectancy? Perhaps it was also a combination of healthier eating habits (that wasn't mentioned in the article.)