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Baldness Drug Prevents Prostate Cancer
Aired June 24, 2003 - 13:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a drug that's commonly used to treat male pattern baldness may be effective in preventing prostate cancer, but researchers have found a major downside.
Here to fill us in, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Gupta.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well let me tell you, I'm sort of moderately excited about this. Because on one hand, researchers have proven, for the first time, that prostate cancer can actually be prevented with a medication. But as you correctly mentioned Kyra, there are some downsides as well. One of them being, the people who did get cancer appeared to have a more significant cancer if they were also taking this medication. And number two, they also seemed to have a decreased sexual drive. So a sexual side effect as well.
Let's take a look at the study first of all. It was a very large study, the results of which are published in the "New England Journal of Medicine." You can see there, 19,000 healthy men, that is, they did not have any prostate cancer, any signs of prostate cancer, when they started the study.
They were followed for seven years. Half of them took this drug, also known as Finasteride, also known as Propecia and Proscar which is important because those are drugs used to treat baldness and benign prostate enlargement. Half took the placebo. What they found over time -- actually they stopped the study a year early because the results were so promising -- was that, you can see the numbers, 800 of those men taking the Finasteride drug got prostate cancer, compared to 1,147 who took the placebo. That's about a 25 percent decrease in prostate cancer if you were taking that drug. Again, that was in men, all healthy, none of them had prostate cancer. Eight hundred developed it if they the Finasteride, 1,100 if they took the placebo.
PHILLIPS: Now you and I were just talking about, we know people who are taking this, it's working well for baldness. What do men like that do now?
GUPTA: Well, it's a sort of interesting -- there are a couple interesting points that came out of it. First of all, this is a very preliminary study. The data just got released about an hour ago, but it's important to know there may be an option out there for men to try and prevent prostate cancer. We know it works well by actually inhibiting the amount of testosterone conversion in the man's body. That's how this drug works. That's how it works for baldness, that's how it works for benign enlargement, and that's how it's probably been working now in this trial for prostate cancer. But probably just is still going to mean a discussion between a man and his doctor before actually going on the medication. There's also concern, Kyra, how we mentioned, about the fact that the men who did get cancer on this medication had a more aggressive form of cancer. That's going to need to be sorted out a little bit before they start recommend this drug.
PHILLIPS: Why? Why more aggressive cancer?
GUPTA: Yes, you know, that's a good question. We talked to some of the doctors about that. One thing, they say this drug may actually be decreasing the amount of the insignificant cancers, cancers that are not as significant, they would not grow that significantly. This drug may be decreasing those cancers, but not working very well on the aggressive cancers. So when you look at the numbers after the trial is done all you see are the aggressive cancers that are popping up in those patients who took the medication.
But like I said, we asked researchers that same question you asked me, and they said we don't know why yet, but it's certainly a concern, one that's going to have to be addressed before they can actually figure out whether or not they want to recommend this across the board.
PHILLIPS: We'll continue follow it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you, alright.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 24, 2003 - 13:12 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a drug that's commonly used to treat male pattern baldness may be effective in preventing prostate cancer, but researchers have found a major downside.
Here to fill us in, CNN medical correspondent Dr. Gupta.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well let me tell you, I'm sort of moderately excited about this. Because on one hand, researchers have proven, for the first time, that prostate cancer can actually be prevented with a medication. But as you correctly mentioned Kyra, there are some downsides as well. One of them being, the people who did get cancer appeared to have a more significant cancer if they were also taking this medication. And number two, they also seemed to have a decreased sexual drive. So a sexual side effect as well.
Let's take a look at the study first of all. It was a very large study, the results of which are published in the "New England Journal of Medicine." You can see there, 19,000 healthy men, that is, they did not have any prostate cancer, any signs of prostate cancer, when they started the study.
They were followed for seven years. Half of them took this drug, also known as Finasteride, also known as Propecia and Proscar which is important because those are drugs used to treat baldness and benign prostate enlargement. Half took the placebo. What they found over time -- actually they stopped the study a year early because the results were so promising -- was that, you can see the numbers, 800 of those men taking the Finasteride drug got prostate cancer, compared to 1,147 who took the placebo. That's about a 25 percent decrease in prostate cancer if you were taking that drug. Again, that was in men, all healthy, none of them had prostate cancer. Eight hundred developed it if they the Finasteride, 1,100 if they took the placebo.
PHILLIPS: Now you and I were just talking about, we know people who are taking this, it's working well for baldness. What do men like that do now?
GUPTA: Well, it's a sort of interesting -- there are a couple interesting points that came out of it. First of all, this is a very preliminary study. The data just got released about an hour ago, but it's important to know there may be an option out there for men to try and prevent prostate cancer. We know it works well by actually inhibiting the amount of testosterone conversion in the man's body. That's how this drug works. That's how it works for baldness, that's how it works for benign enlargement, and that's how it's probably been working now in this trial for prostate cancer. But probably just is still going to mean a discussion between a man and his doctor before actually going on the medication. There's also concern, Kyra, how we mentioned, about the fact that the men who did get cancer on this medication had a more aggressive form of cancer. That's going to need to be sorted out a little bit before they start recommend this drug.
PHILLIPS: Why? Why more aggressive cancer?
GUPTA: Yes, you know, that's a good question. We talked to some of the doctors about that. One thing, they say this drug may actually be decreasing the amount of the insignificant cancers, cancers that are not as significant, they would not grow that significantly. This drug may be decreasing those cancers, but not working very well on the aggressive cancers. So when you look at the numbers after the trial is done all you see are the aggressive cancers that are popping up in those patients who took the medication.
But like I said, we asked researchers that same question you asked me, and they said we don't know why yet, but it's certainly a concern, one that's going to have to be addressed before they can actually figure out whether or not they want to recommend this across the board.
PHILLIPS: We'll continue follow it. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you, alright.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
