Research and Reports in Urology (Jan 2023)
How to Improve the Quality of Life of Patients with Prostate Cancer Treated with Hormone Therapy?
Abstract
Fabio Turco,1,* Lavinia Di Prima,1,* Chiara Pisano,1 Stefano Poletto,1 Marco De Filippis,1 Veronica Crespi,1 Giovanni Farinea,1 Massimiliano Cani,1 Mariangela Calabrese,1 Isabella Saporita,1 Rosario Francesco Di Stefano,1 Marcello Tucci,2 Consuelo Buttigliero1 1Department of Oncology, University of Turin, at Division of Medical Oncology, San Luigi Gonzaga Hospital, Turin, Italy; 2Department of Medical Oncology, Cardinal Massaia Hospital, Asti, Italy*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Marcello Tucci, Department of Medical Oncology, Cardinal Massaia Hospital, Corso Dante Alighieri 202, Asti, 14100, Italy, Tel +393286754734, Email [email protected]: Prostate cancer (PC) is a hormone-sensitive tumor. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is the cornerstone of systemic therapy for patients with intermediate or high-risk localized, recurrent, and metastatic prostate cancer. Although generally well tolerated, ADT can lead to short- and long-term adverse events that can worsen the quality of life of patients with PC. In the last decade, the introduction of novel generation androgen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPI) has resulted in an improvement in the prognosis of patients with metastatic PC when used in combination with ADT. The use of ARPI in increasingly early stages of the disease determines a longer exposure of patients to these treatments. Although ARPIs are normally well-tolerated drugs, they generally cause an increase in toxicity compared to ADT alone, being able to worsen some adverse events already induced by ADT or leading to the development of specific side effects. Although there are no specific treatments for all the adverse events induced by hormonal therapies, it is essential to know the possible toxicities induced by the different treatments and to start procedures to prevent and/or recognize and consequently treat them early in order to not compromise the quality of life of the patients with PC. The aim of this review is to describe the adverse events induced by hormonal therapies. We will first describe the side effects induced by both ADT and ARPI and then the specific adverse events of the different ARPIs. Furthermore, we will try to highlight the possible therapeutic options to prevent or mitigate the toxicity induced by hormone therapies in order to improve the quality of life of the patients with PC.Keywords: prostate cancer, androgen deprivation therapy, androgen pathway inhibitors, management of adverse events