Long-term Consequences of Finasteride vs Placebo in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial.

ABSTRACT: Finasteride has been found to reduce the risk of low-grade prostate cancer but to have no impact on overall survival. The long-term adverse and beneficial consequences of finasteride have not been examined. We used a linkage between data from the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) and Medicare claims. Patients were examined by randomized study arm (finasteride vs placebo for 7 years) for long-term consequences of the intervention, including cardiac, endocrine, and sexual dysfunction, depression, diabetes, and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)-related events. To examine time to events, we used cumulative incidence and Cox regression, adjusting for covariates. All statistical tests were two-sided. A total of 13 935 of 18 880 participants (73.8%) in the PCPT were linked to Medicare clai

SUBMITTER: Unger JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5241895 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature