Testosterone and PC

Put "testosterone" in the search bar to read lots of discussions. Bottom line - it did not cause PC to happen. It can exacerbate BPH-related PSA increase, but that has nothing to do with PC.

Your PC will not go away, although Proscar or Avodart are associated with half of the men taking it while on AS finding no PC on follow-up biopsy. Up to a third on AS may not find any PC of f/u even without it. So at the very least, it may extend the time you stay on AS.

There is a fair amount of evidence linking (correlation, not necessarily causation) low testosterone levels with increased risk of prostate cancer. So, your risk might have been higher in some way due to years of low testosterone, not from the use of exogenous testosterone. As with PSA3DOT7, I was on TRT before my diagnosis, I was treated with surgery (lower Gleason score than PSA3DOT7), and I resumed TRT six months after surgery. I've been on TRT for almost a year now and my PSA remains undetectable.

Best of luck.

Look at it this way. If Testosterone caused pca, All men with normal testosterone would have it.

Prostate Cancer

Not only can testosterone therapy drugs adversely affect the heart, but they are also linked to a possible increase in prostate cancer risk. One of the reasons for this is a spike in testosterone levels. One study led by Dr. Terrence Shaneyfelt involving men who received testosterone replacement therapy found that there was a two-fold increase in the risk of prostate cancer among men whose testosterone levels were above normal. The study was conducted by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard.

Another study reviewed the medical records of six urology practices. Men involved underwent testosterone replacement therapy for sexual dysfunction or “rejuvenation.” In this study, a number of men were diagnosed with prostate cancer after they began testosterone therapy, some within two years of beginning therapy.

Many researchers agree that more study is needed on the relationship between testosterone therapy and prostate cancer. Men who undergo testosterone replacement therapy should be monitored by doctors to make sure that prostate cancer does not develop. Men who have a history of prostate problems should not use testosterone products.

http://www.drugwatch.com/testosterone/side-effects/

Fairwind,
Fortunately our knowledge of testosterone and prostate cancer has progressed a lot since the study you cite, which was just a data review, from 15 years ago. More recent data shows no association with higher serum levels of T, and an inverse association among men with low serum levels. The fact that men are diagnosed with PC coincidentally after seeking out TRT for low T levels should come as no surprise - older men have lower T levels and older men are more likely to have PC.

Now, I'm not saying that it is proven that testosterone does not cause prostate cancer, or that it's proven that testosterone supplementation can help delay progression - those hypotheses are being explored in randomized clinical trials, which is our only tool to prove something definitively. I am saying that neither has a randomized clinical trial ever been done the proves that T can exacerbate known PC in non-castrate men, as you asserted. The bulk of the evidence is in the other direction.

- Allen

The drug companies are acting on advice of their lawyers to cover their butts. It has nothing to do with evidence based medicine.

I put my trust in science, not advertisements or lack there of.

Between 250K and 300K men a year are dx with PC. The odds that some of them are on any medication is pretty high. It does not mean that the medications caused the PC. It means that the pool of people with PC is so large that identifying a single drug as a cause is possible if that same drug was present in a large portion of the PC group. I would say that aspirin is more present then TRT.

And if your like me...beer and single malt scotch are present. Not giving those up.