Health: Prevent Prostate Cancer

A generic drug called finasteride reduces the risk of prostate cancer by 25 percent, according to a 2003 study of 18,000 men.

But doctors apparently don't believe it, misunderstand the findings, or just don't know about it.

When researchers asked them why, half said they didn't know the drug could prevent prostate cancer. And more than half said they were worried that men taking finasteride had a higher risk of developing more aggressive tumors.

That second concern arises from the first results of that 2003 study, called the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial. It seemed to show that finasteride, which blocks the cancer-stimulating effects of testosterone, lowered the overall rate of prostate cancer by 25 percent but increased the risk of more dangerous tumors by 27 percent.

But in 2008, the researchers refuted from that finding, after looking more closely at the data along with biopsies of the tumors that occurred during the study. The new analysis showed finasteride didn't really raise the risk of high-grade tumors, it just makes tests for tumor grade more sensitive.

From Doctors Are Slow to Prescribe Pill to Prevent Prostate Cancer by Richard Knox, August 11, 2010, at National Public Radio.