Is a structured exercise program safe for men on ADT?

This is a report on an on-going study in Demark of an exercise intervention for men on ADT. The authors intend to enroll 230 patients with the goal of evaluating the safety of their twice a week exercise class for ADT patients. The safety of such programs has, though, already been established by other groups studying the benefit of exercise for men on ADT. So one wonders if there are other unstated goals. A hint of that comes from the fact that the study is funded by Ferring, the drug company that makes the LHRH antagonist drug, Firmagon (= Degarelix).

Notably, the patients in this study can be on ADT achieved either surgically or with a variety of drugs, including both Firmagon and the more traditional LHRH agonist drugs, like Lupron and Zoladex. Thus this study has the potential of assessing the relative benefits of (and adherence to) a structured exercise program when the ADT is achieved by a variety of different methods.

 

Ostergren P, Ragle AM, Jakobsen H, Klausen TW, Vinther A, Sonksen J. 2016. Group-based exercise in daily clinical practice to improve physical fitness in men with prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy: study protocol. BMJ Open 6(6):e011460. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27357198