This paper is built upon a retrospective data from the Japan Cancer on the Prostate Risk Assessment database. This is a database similar to the CaPSURE database in the USA.
Up until recently, ADT appeared to be more commonly used as a primary treatment for prostate cancer in Japan than in North America. Considering the side effect burden of ADT for Caucasians, there has been growing sentiment in Europe and North America that ADT you should not be used as a primary treatment for prostate cancer except in limited situations, such as patients with very high-risk disease or metastatic presentation. The risk, however, does not seem so severe for Japanese men for, as the authors point out, that Japanese men with prostate cancer appear to have better outcomes when treated with ADT and than non-Japanese men in the USA. The authors suggest that “there may be racial differences in the biochemical mechanisms related to the effectiveness of ADT in different populations." An interesting idea.
Kitagawa Y, Ueno S, Konaka H, Mizokami A, Hinotsu S, Akaza H, Namiki M. 2015. Experience with androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer in Japan and future perspectives. Curr Cancer Drug Targets 15(4):314-326. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26003144