Hot flushes in prostatic cancer patients during androgen-deprivation therapy with monthly dose of degarelix or leuprolide

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Leuprolide and Degarelix in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The aim of the study was to compare the onset, incidence and frequency/intensity of hot flushes during androgen-deprivation therapy with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist (GnRH) blocker versus an agonist using data from a randomized Phase 3 clinical trial.

Why It Was Studied

Data on hot flushes was collected as self-reported adverse events and in a subgroup of 254 patients with electronic diaries.

The onset of hot flushes was faster on degarelix versus leuprolide, and was accompanied by higher median hot flush scores during the first 3 months.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 610 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, men only.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Leuprolide and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

A time span of 12 months appears in the methods.

What Was Measured

The onset of hot flushes was faster on degarelix versus leuprolide, and was accompanied by higher median hot flush scores during the first 3 months.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Flushing, Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone, Heart Rate, Leuprolide, Oligopeptides and Prostatic Neoplasms.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Leuprolide and Degarelix in 610 patients over 12 months.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

The publication is from 2011 (Prostate cancer and prostatic diseases), a journal based in England.

More context: the Leuprolide compound page and the Degarelix compound page, all human trials.