Dr. Crawford on Intermittent Androgen Deprivation With Degarelix

E. David Crawford, MD, professor, Urologic and Radiation Oncology, head, Section of Urologic Oncology, University of Colorado at Denver, discusses a study presented at the 2014 AUA Annual Meeting that analyzed intermittent androgen deprivation with degarelix.

Degarelix has been around for about five years. Crawford says that there clearly are benefits of an antagonist like degarelix compared with an agonist: An antagonist can rapidly reduce testosterone and FSH as well as the risk of cardiovascular disease and acute renal failure.

This study, which was one of the first of its kind, looked an an antagonist with intermittent therapy. In this study, patients with early disease and biochemical failure were randomized to intermittent degarelix, continuous degarelix, or continuous leuprolide. It was concluded that degarelix is safe and effective and, afterwards, the recovery of testosterone was rapid. This represents a step forward for the development of degarelix.

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