HRT patches prevent prostate cancer spread, study finds

HRT patches used for menopause may be as effective as injections at preventing prostate cancer spread, a study suggests.

Patches that lower testosterone by delivering oestradiol, a form of oestrogen, through the skin were found to be as effective as injections at stopping the cancer from spreading.

Researchers at University College London investigated whether the patches could match the effectiveness of current injection-based hormone therapies.

These injections are routinely given to men with locally advanced prostate cancer, where the disease has spread just beyond the gland.

The main aim of this hormone therapy is to suppress testosterone levels, a hormone that is crucial for the cancer’s growth.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 1,360 men with an average age of 72, recruited from cancer centres across the UK.

Participants were either given patches to wear or received injections designed to block testosterone production, allowing researchers to compare the effectiveness of the two methods.

The patches used in the trial are the same as those used in hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, to treat menopause symptoms in women.

Researchers found the patches were just as effective as injections at preventing the cancer from spreading.

The patches also led to fewer side effects than injections, which can include hot flushes, bone density problems and risk factors for heart disease such as higher cholesterol, higher blood sugar and higher blood pressure.

However, the patches were linked to more breast tissue swelling.

Experts said patients who are given injections of LHRH agonists, a type of hormone therapy, need multiple hospital or GP visits, while oestradiol patches can be applied by patients at home.

Ruth Langley, from the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL and lead author of the study, said: “We believe our findings should lead to men with locally advanced prostate cancer being able to choose which hormone therapy suits them best.

“For some men, for instance, hot flushes can be very debilitating, and so the patches could greatly increase their quality of life.”

Commenting on the study, Caroline Geraghty, senior specialist nurse manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “Thanks to research, over eight in 10 men diagnosed with prostate cancer will now survive for 10 years or more, as well as finding more effective treatments, we need to find ways to make them kinder too.

“This trial has done exactly that, it shows that hormone patches are just as effective as traditional injections at controlling locally advanced prostate cancer, while being much easier and gentler to administer.

“This should give men greater choice over their treatment in the future, allowing them to live not just longer lives, but better lives.”

The results were published as the UK national screening committee, which advises the Government, prepared to meet to decide the future of screening men for prostate cancer.

In a draft recommendation last year, it rejected population-wide screening using the prostate specific antigen, or PSA, test, saying it ‘is likely to cause more harm than good’.

The committee recommended only screening men with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations, who are at much higher risk of prostate cancer, every two years between the ages of 45 and 61.

Health secretary Wes Streeting said he was surprised by the move but that any final decision needs to be ‘based on science and evidence, not on politics’.