Although previous studies have suggested an association between ADT and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there are methodological limitations of those studies, which have led to ambiguous results.
To get a clearer answer about a possible ADT and RA association, researchers in Canada and Germany have undertaken a large-scale, population-based, cohort study involving data from over 32,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1988 and 2014. Of these, 16,811 were treated with ADT. The men were followed for a median of 3.3 years after their cancer diagnosis.
Over the follow-up period, only 63 men were newly diagnosed with RA. When comparing men who were treated with ADT to those not exposed to ADT, there was no increase in the risk of RA. Results of further analyses confirmed that neither the type of ADT medication nor the duration of ADT use was associated with an increased risk of developing RA.
ADT carries several health risks that need to be monitored, but the good news here is that RA is not one of the risks.
To read the full article, please see:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs40264-019-00847-w
Klil-Drori, A. J., Santella, C., Tascilar, K., Yin, H., Aprikian, A., & Azoulay, L. (2019). Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer and the Risk of Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Population-Based Cohort Study. Drug Safety, 42(8), 1005 – 1011. doi: 10.1007/s40264-019-00847-w.