WEDNESDAY, July 4 (HealthDay News) -- The prostate cancer prevention drug finasteride has only a minor impact on sexual function and the effect diminishes over time, according to study findings published in the July 4 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Carol M. Moinpour, Ph.D., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and colleagues conducted a study of 17,313 men enrolled in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial. The participants were assessed on a range of outcomes, including sexual dysfunction at six months, 3.5 years and 6.5 years.
Relative to men taking placebo, those on finasteride reported a 3.21 point increase in sexual dysfunction on the 100-point Sexual Activity Scale at the first assessment, dropping to 2.11 points by the third assessment.
When covariates were taken into account, sexual dysfunction increased in both arms of the cohort by a mean 8.22 points from the start to the finish of the study.
"Our data show that the effects of finasteride treatment are clinically far less relevant than natural sources of variability in this heterogeneous population and suggest that finasteride would cause little or no sexual dysfunction for most men who might take it," the authors write.
The authors of this study received support, in the form of study drug, from Merck, Inc., and allowed the company a courtesy review of the manuscript before publication.
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