Drug Lowers Risk Of Prostate Cancer: Study
Seattle – More men than ever are being recommended to take a drug that might lower the risk of getting prostate cancer, even if regular testing shows no signs of them having the disease.
The drug finasteride, which is also commonly used to treat male pattern baldness and urological problems, can help reduce the risk of getting prostate cancer by as much as 25 percent, according to statements made by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Urological Association. Each year, around 200,000 American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, and about six percent of them die from the disease.
Finasteride works by shrinking the prostate and lowering the risk of cancer overall, which also makes it more likely that the most dangerous and lethal forms of cancer will stand out better, making them more easily detectable and improving the accuracy of screening the cancer. Men who are over 50 that are regularly getting screened for prostate cancer are being urged to talk to their doctor about starting a program of finasteride.
Right now, however, scientists are unsure of which types of prostate cancer are most urgent and which can be ignored for awhile, and whether or not regular screening is a viable test to catch prostate cancer. It also seems to be up in the air whether insurance companies will cover the preventative treatment of prostate cancer by taking finasteride, which can be costly without insurance.