What Causes Osteoporosis in Men With Prostate Cancer?
It is well known that testosterone and other male hormones, called androgens, can stimulate the growth of prostate cancer. For this reason a common treatment approach for prostate cancer is to lower the level of testosterone in the body. This approach has been successful in treating men with advanced prostate cancer (disease that has spread throughout the body) and it is now used when the disease is diagnosed early, before it has spread beyond the prostate. While low testosterone levels can slow prostate cancer growth, they can also lead to loss of bone density in men. In particular hormonal therapies that deprive the body of androgens—called androgen-deprivation therapy– increase the risk of osteoporosis. Androgen-deprivation therapies include: • Orchiectomy, a surgical procedure to remove the testicles, the main source of testosterone. • Lutenizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analogs, or agonists, are drugs that lower testosterone levels in the body. Another class of hormonal d
