07/09/2009 0 Comments Contact Our News Editors

WEDNESDAY, July 8 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors don't have to be so cautious in prescribing the drug finasteride to men at risk for prostate cancer, a new study suggests.

Physicians face a dilemma when trying to decide whether to use the drug, which has been shown to prevent prostate cancer in about one in five men who take it. However, findings from the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial published in 2003 concluded that men who developed prostate cancer while taking finasteride were 25 percent more likely to develop an aggressive form of the disease.

But a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine suggests that the drug does not increase the risk for aggressive prostate cancer but simply makes it easier to diagnose. The study appears in the July 7 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.