Prostate cancer therapy can increase heart risk factors

Androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT), commonly used to treat prostate cancer, can worsen heart risk factors and may increase the risk of heart attack and/or cardiac death, although the relationship between ADT and heart attack or cardiac death has not been definitively established, according to a science advisory published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

The advisory, produced by a writing group of experts from the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Urological Association and American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, is an evaluation of published research about the relationship between ADT and cardiovascular events and risk factors in patients with prostate cancer.

Considerable data show that ADT can increase fat mass, increase low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol — the “bad” cholesterol — and cause blood sugar abnormalities, according to the writing group.