CardioExchange Archive

Androgen suppression therapy (AST) for prostate cancer may be a serious risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) disease, according to a Viewpoint published online in Heart. The scope of the problem is widely underappreciated and is rarely considered in clinical practice, write Liam Bourke and colleagues. The subject was also the topic of a 2010 scientific statement from the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the American Urological Association.

The authors estimate that for every 1000 men treated for 5 years with AST, there will be an excess 315 incident cases of coronary heart disease, 360 cases of diabetes, 28 MIs, and 42 strokes.

“The current status quo of no action is, in our view, unsatisfactory for the patient and unlikely to be cost effective,” the authors write. “There is a need to investigate integration of AST specific CVD risk augmentation strategies into standard clinical care.” Cancer nurse specialists, they suggest, are a “potentially cost efficient, efficacious resource to manage CVD risk in these men.”