Androgen deprivation therapy reversibly increases endothelium-dependent vasodilation in men with prostate cancer. By Nguyen et al. 2015
Key sentence from the paper: “…the biology of androgen deficiency, both endogenous and induced, remains unclear and requires further study to elucidate the mechanism of interaction between sex hormones and the vasculature.”
For the full abstract, see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25896892
Commentary: As noted many times before in papers reviewed in this blog, ADT can have negative effects on the cardiovascular system particularly for men who already had pre-existing cardiovascular risk. The mechanism by which ADT affects the cardiovascular system remains unknown. This paper ruled out that the cardiovascular risk is due to ADT altering the physiology of peripheral vasodilation.
It is an open question as to why ADT affects the cardiovascular system, but it looks to be more complicated than one might have supposed. For example, we now know that patients, who go on an LHRH antagonist (e.g. Firmagon), or those who have an orchiectomy, as opposed to the more commonly administered LHRH agonists (e.g. Lupron, Zoladex), have a slightly different and perhaps better cardiovascular outlook.
Nguyen PL, Jarolim P, Basaria S, Zuflacht JP, Milian J, Kadivar S, Graham PL, Hyatt A, Kantoff PW, Beckman JA. 2015. Androgen deprivation therapy reversibly increases endothelium-dependent vasodilation in men with prostate cancer. J Am Heart Assoc 4(4).