Abstract
Prostate cancer (PCa) currently stands as the most common malignancy and the second most common cause of death in men worldwide. Dr. C. Huggins revolutionized the field of PCa treatment through his work investigating the therapeutic effects of androgen deprivation. These early surgical castration methods were expanded upon by integrating reversible pharmacologic castration via biologic agonists. Following this, intermittent ADT (iADT) became a medical substitute for its continuous counterpart. This data synthesis aims to highlight and assess the pertinent adverse effects of ADT, to compare mortality for PCa treatment plans, and consequently provide direction for clinicians in choosing the suitable systemic ADT approach. We performed a thorough systematic search across the PubMed database to identify prospective randomized clinical trials (RCTs) comparing continuous and intermittent androgen deprivation therapy (cADT and iADT). Our qualitative analysis aimed to evaluate the potential of iADT as an alternative treatment approach, emphasizing recent clinical outcomes. The analysis of randomized control trials in the literature revealed no discernable statistical difference in PCa-specific mortality in comparison of iADT and cADT treatments. Further, in the analysis of mortality due to non-PCa causes, iADT patients fared more favorably compared to cADT. Due to iADT's characteristics of being more cost-efficient and less likely to cause undesirable side effects, urologic healthcare professionals should be made aware of these findings when counseling patients on the optimal form of ADT and consulting for future treatment guidelines.