By Jimmy Downs

Monday Sept 17, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Endocrine treatment (ET) for prostate cancer can drastically increase risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, according to a new study in International Journal of Cancer.

David Robinson of Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, Sweden and colleagues conducted the study and found prostate cancer patients who received endocrine treatment were 40 percent more likely to develop ischemic heart disease and stroke.

Epidemiological studies have shown men with prostate cancer on endocrine therapy are at an increased risk for ischemic heart disease and stroke. The study was intended to examine if the increase is caused by the disease per se or the cancer treatment in men with prostate cancer who received different endocrine treatments.

Analyses of data from 39,051 men with prostatic neoplasms and men without the disease (controls) showed that 30,883 men with prostate cancer, but without receiving endocrine therapy were at 8 percent and10 percent increased risk for ischemic heart disease and stroke, respectively.

Among 8,168 men with prostate cancer who started endocrine treatment during the observation period, the risk for ischemic heart disease was 40 percent higher during the treatment, compared with the risk prior to the treatment.   No increase in stroke risk was found associated with use of endocrine treatment.

The researchers concluded "Regardless of treatment, men with prostate cancer had a small increase in risk of IHD and stroke and initiation of ET was associated with a further increase in risk of IHD. Our data underline the importance of a proper indication for ET because many men with low-risk prostate cancer currently receive ET."

 Endocrine treatment in prostate cancer including orchiectomy, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists, or anti-androgen (AA) monotherapy is intended to delay the progression of the prostate cancer in any stage.

Ischaemic or ischemic heart disease or myocardial ischaemia is a disease characterized by ischaemia (reduced blood supply) of the heart muscle, due usually to coronary artery disease (atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries or blockage of the artery).

Heart disease including ischemic heart disease as a major heart disease is the number one killer in the United States. Each year, the disease kills about 600,000 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Prostate cancer, usually non-aggressive, is expected to be diagnosed in 230,000 American men and and to kill about 40,000 in 2012, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Prostate cancer in many cases is preventable.