Degarelix: a novel gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor blocker--results from a 1-yr, multicentre, randomised, phase 2 dosage-finding study in the treatment of prostate cancer

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Degarelix, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Degarelix is a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist (GnRH receptor blocker) with immediate onset of action, suppressing gonadotropins, testosterone, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer.

Who Took Part

The study group was 187 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, men only.

The 1-yr study was of open-label, randomised design and involved 187 patients (range: 52-93 yr, median: 72 yr) with histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma of the prostate and a baseline PSA >2 ng/ml.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and open-label.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Degarelix group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Everyone knew when Degarelix was being given (open label), which is simpler to run but leaves more room for expectations to affect what is reported.

What Was Measured

Degarelix is a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist (GnRH receptor blocker) with immediate onset of action, suppressing gonadotropins, testosterone, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Chromobox Protein Homolog 5, Oligopeptides, Prostatic Neoplasms and Receptors, LHRH.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and open-label study of Degarelix in 187 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2008 (European urology), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the Degarelix compound page.