Cancer surveys
-
Endocrine management is the best palliative management available for patients with carcinoma of the prostate. It is based on androgen withdrawal by castration or other means. Endocrine management was introduced into clinical medicine by Huggins and his associates in the early 1940s on the basis of careful clinical and experimental research establishing the biological effects of androgen withdrawal in animal systems and in humans. ⋯ Total androgen suppression seems to produce significantly better survival when compared with daily injections of LHRH alone. The use of pure anti-androgens or of 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors could potentially prevent the most significant side effect of all androgen withdrawal regimens, loss of libido and impotence. However, neither the use of pure anti-androgens as monotherapy nor the use of 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors as monotherapy has been shown to produce clinical results that are equal to castration.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)