Prostate cancer vaccines more potent with hormone therapy

Hormone therapy is the second most-used treatment after surgery for early prostate cancer that hasn’t spread, although the drugs aren’t approved for that use, researchers said. The medicines can cause side effects such as hot flashes and impotence and have been associated with osteoporosis and diabetes.

Widely used hormone-blocking drugs failed to improve survival in older men with early prostate cancer that hasn’t spread, a study found.

In fact, men given the drugs alone were slightly more likely to die of prostate cancer during the next six years than men who’d gotten medical monitoring but no or delayed treatment, another common treatment approach.