Hormone patches are as good at controlling locally advanced prostate cancer as the injections typically used to deliver hormone therapy, according to the results of a large clinical trial led by UCL (University College London) researchers.
Men with cancer that has spread just outside the prostate are given hormone therapy to suppress levels of testosterone which the cancer needs to grow. Most commonly this is done by injections of drugs that block testosterone production.
The new study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that patches that lower testosterone by delivering estradiol (a form of oestrogen) through the skin were as effective as injections at preventing the cancer from spreading, and caused fewer side effects.
The current standard of care, injections of LHRH agonists…