Aspirin therapy, often used to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, can interfere with the androgen suppression treatment used to treat men with prostate cancer. Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston found that regular use of even low-dose aspirin caused men undergoing androgen therapy to have a significantly higher risk of abnormal liver function tests.
A study found that 37 percent of men taking the anti-androgen flutamide (Eulexin) and who also used aspirin, stopped taking the drug after abnormal liver-function tests. Only 16 percent of those taking the anti-androgen drug but not using aspirin dropped out of the study because of abnormal liver tests.
Dr. Anthony V. D’Amico said that oncologists and cardiologists need to work together to decide whether or not a patient should continue taking aspirin while undergoing hormonal therapy. Evidence indicates that anti-androgen therapy may increase heart attack risk, but other studies show that men who completed flutamide therapy live longer than those who stop treatment. “It’s going to have to be decided on an individual basis,” he said.
Dr. D’Amico suggests that men who occasionally use aspirin for pain relief, switch to a non-aspirin pain-killer while they are undergoing hormonal therapy.
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