07 May 08 You May Need to Lose Weight, But Osteoporosis is Still Important

Androgen Deprivation Therapy Causes Bone Loss

When successful, the combination of the two therapies keep the tumor from growing. Unfortunately, patients who get the androgen deprivation therapy lose from 4 to 13% of their bone density annually, when compared to healthy men who will lose on average from .5 to 1% per year. Usually, it is post menopausal women who are considered to be at the greatest risk for bone density loss, but in reality, men have the greater rate.

The original study’s purpose was to document the effects of exercise on other quality-of-life measures, including:

• fatigue
• ability to sleep
• nausea
• cardiac fitness

The dual energy x-ray, known as DEXA scans, collected during those analyses showed such dramatic and compelling results that the research team went back to develop the bone loss portion of the study.

Tags: bone density