Prostate Cancer

Known risks of prostate cancer:

The various risk factors for prostate cancer include age over 65 years, family history, African American (4), obesity (5), smoking (5), and sedentary lifestyle (5). McGregor SE compared various levels of alcohol intakes and found that prostate cancer risk increased as alcohol consumption increased (6).

Prostate cancer and finasteride:

The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial randomized 18,880 subjects to receive either finasteride or placebo for 7 years and patients were tracked for up to 18 years. In the finasteride group, 10.5% of subjects developed prostate cancer vs. 14.9% in the placebo group. High grade prostate cancer was seen in 3.5% of the finasteride group, and in 3% of the placebo group. Long term survival was similar in both low and high grade prostate cancers compared to their respective placebo groups. Treatment with finasteride resulted in reduction of prostate cancer risk by 30%. (33)