Prostate Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Prostate Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

Enhancement of intermittent androgen ablation by "off-cycle" maintenance with finasteride in LNCaP prostate cancer xenograft model.

Eggener SE, Stern JA, Jain PM, Oram S, Ai J, Cai X, Roehl KA, Wang Z

Department of Urology, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA.

BACKGROUND: Intermittent androgen ablation (IAA) was developed with the intention of delaying progression of prostate cancer to androgen-independence and improving quality of life. Our previous studies suggest that relative to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), testosterone (T) is a weak inducer of proliferation and a more potent inducer of differentiation. We hypothesize that administration of finasteride (F), a type-II 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor that increases T and decreases DHT, during the IAA "off-cycle" would enhance the efficacy. METHODS: After LNCaP tumor establishment, nude mice were castrated and randomized to continuous androgen ablation (CAA), continuous androgen ablation plus finasteride (CAA + F), intermittent androgen ablation (IAA), or intermittent androgen ablation plus finasteride (IAA + F). RESULTS: After one cycle of therapy, mice treated with IAA + F had significantly less tumor growth than the other treatment groups (P = 0.002). Mice treated with IAA + F had the best survival (P = 0.048) and were 3-5 times more likely to be alive 70 days following treatment initiation. CONCLUSIONS: IAA with finasteride provides the most favorable tumor growth kinetics and survival compared to both CAA and standard IAA.

Published 27 February 2006 in Prostate, 66(5): 495-502.
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