This is a small retrospective study of 148 advanced prostate cancer patients of which 35 also had diabetes. The good news is the combination of ADT and diabetes did not necessarily hasten their time to death or castrate-resistant status. But for patients who were not metastatic at the onset, those on ADT showed some sign of accelerating disease progression. The study is too small to establish direct link between diabetes and ADT side effect burden, but it reinforces the idea that patients on ADT should do whatever is necessary to avoid or control diabetes.
Shevach J, Gallagher EJ, Kochukoshy T, Gresia V, Brar M, Galsky MD, Oh WK. 2015. Concurrent Diabetes Mellitus may Negatively Influence Clinical Progression and Response to Androgen Deprivation Therapy in Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer. Front Oncol 5:129. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26125012