Gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonists, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease in Men with Prostate Cancer: Which Metabolic Syndrome?

In 2006, we first reported that GnRH agonists were associated with a greater risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in men with prostate cancer. We studied the records of 73 196 men in the linked Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) and Medicare database who were diagnosed with local or local-regional prostate cancer during 1992–1999. Using a time-varying Cox proportional hazards model that adjusted for patient and tumour characteristics, the current use of a GnRH agonist was associated with a significantly greater risk of incident diabetes, coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction and sudden death. The adjusted hazard ratios for incident diabetes and coronary heart disease were 1.44 and 1.16, respectively. A subsequent study using SEER-Medicare data also reported a significant association between GnRH agonists and incident CVD. PMC ID: PMC3047398 (June 2008)