Prostate cancer patients getting hormone therapy at risk of blood clots

Hormone therapy used to treat men with prostate cancer may raise the risk of a blood clot, a study of 76,000 Swedish men suggests.

The study led by Mieke Van Hemelrijck, of King’s College London showed younger men undergoing hormone therapy for prostate cancer were two and half times more likely than controls to suffer a deep-vein thrombosis and about twice as likely to develop a pulmonary embolism.

The researchers reported in The Lancet Oncology that as many as half of all patients treated in hospital are at risk of developing a blood clot in the legs, which can lead to a pulmonary embolism, because of unknown reasons.  The new study is the first to demonstrate the link between prostate cancer and blood clots.

For the study, Hemelrijck followed 30642 men who received hormone therapy, 26432 curative treatment normally surgery and 19526 surveillance between 1997 and 2007. 1881 cases of blood clots were reported.

Telegraph.co.uk cited Dr. Helen Rippon, Head of Research Management at The Prostate Cancer Charity as saying the link has been found between hormone therapy and blood clots in these men, but that does not mean the treatment caused the clots.

Drugs used in hormone therapy indicated for prostate cancer treatment vary. Estrogen was once used in men with advanced prostate cancer.  The association between use of estrogen and high risk for blood clots has been observed earlier. 

A report published in the Oct 2008 issue of Heart advisor / the Cleveland Clinic says estrogen raises risk of blood clots and stroke.

Prostate cancer is diagnosed in more than 175,000 men each year in the United States and the disease kills about 30,000 annually in the country, according to the National Cancer Institute.

By Jimmy Downs