Metastatic prostate cancer can be treated with hormone-blocking medications that suppress testosterone production. While the use of one drug used to be the standard of care, guidelines now recommend physicians use a combination of two drugs that block hormones in different ways, according to a Feb. 18 news release from the National Cancer Institute.
Of physicians who did not prescribe two hormone-blocking drugs, 60% did so out of concern that the combination therapy would have too many side effects. Clinical trials have shown that patients who receive the combination therapy have a higher quality of life than those who don’t, according to the NCI release.
“One drug alone is no longer sufficient,” study author and oncologist at Salt Lake City-based University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute, Neeraj Agarwal, MD, said in the release. “Combining two [or more] really improves survival without compromising quality of life. But, if you look at the implementation of this data in the real world, we see a real disconnect.”
Read the full study here.
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