Know These Risky Cancer Treatments

Gary Craig was only 48 years old and working as an engineer when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had visited a local urologist in Wichita, Kansas, because he was getting up four or five times each night to urinate. The doctor immediately noticed some warning signs and ordered a biopsy.

They performed 10 biopsies at different locations throughout his prostate gland and found strong indications of cancer at every site.

Craig was at work when he received the news. “I was sitting in a meeting at work and my group leader was with me, and I was very emotional. I said, ‘I’ve got cancer. I can’t stay here right now,’” he told LifeZette. He went home for the rest of the day to process his diagnosis, and he and his wife, Mary Kay, spent a great deal of the day crying and in shock.

The diagnosis hit close to home for Craig. His father was out shoveling snow from the walkway one day when his hip shattered. He was later diagnosed with bone cancer, which had spread from undetected prostate cancer, and he spent a year in a tremendous amount of pain before passing away at 71 years old.

Craig acted fast. After consulting with his doctor, Craig decided to have his prostate gland removed entirely. But the surgery came with high risks.

“I knew I might always be incontinent, I knew I might never be sexually active again, and I knew I might not live very long. But after seeing my father die from it, I wasn’t going to play around with it,” Craig said.

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Thankfully, the surgery went off well and he didn’t experience any complications afterward. But four years later, his hormone levels spiked again and he had to go back for a round of radiation treatments in his abdomen. He continues to go for checkups every three months.

Craig acknowledges that choosing a treatment for prostate cancer isn’t an easy process, and the treatments often come with complications. He spent many hours reading blogs from cancer survivors and understood the risks before he agreed to proceed.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is also one of the leading causes of cancer death among men of all races. In 2012, more than 25,000 men died from prostate cancer; more than 175,000 men were newly diagnosed.

One of the most common forms of treatment for prostate cancer is androgen deprivation therapy, a hormone therapy that lowers the level of male sex hormones that stimulate rapid cancer growth. This therapy is often used in combination with other treatments to help prevent cancer proliferation and recurrence.

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However, a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania shows that this treatment is also associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The new findings have a number of men and their families seriously re-thinking their treatment options.

Here’s why: The researchers in this study used patient records from 16,888 men with prostate cancer, 2,397 of whom were treated with hormone therapy. About three years later, there were 125 new diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease. So those who received hormone therapy treatment had an 88 percent increased risk of Alzheimer’s when compared with other patients.

But Dr. Kevin T. Nead, a radiation oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania and the lead author on the study, emphasized that association is not necessarily causation.

He explained why the treatment may be linked to Alzheimer’s: “First, ADT (androgen deprivation therapy) lowers testosterone levels, and testosterone has been shown to be important for neuron health and regeneration, which may impact the brain’s susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, ADT may increase the risk for cardiovascular disease, and cardiovascular disease is a known risk factor for Alzheimer’s.”

Dr. Nead agreed that doctors may need to warn their patients of the risk of Alzheimer’s if continued studies confirm his findings. For now, though, he says ADT should remain an important part of the prostate cancer treatment profile.

“ADT is known to be a life-extending therapy for some men with prostate cancer. This has been demonstrated in multiple randomized trials, which are our highest level of medical evidence,” he told LifeZette.

Gary Craig doesn’t think hormone therapy would be worth the risk of Alzheimer’s. “My mother died of Alzheimer’s, and emotionally it was very hard on her. It’s not a good way to go. I would not have considered hormone therapy for my own treatment. I would look into every option,” he said.