Prostate Cancer Prevention

Survey: Physicians slow to prescribe pill to prevent prostate cancer.
In continuing coverage, "Shots," an NPR (8/12) health blog, reports, "A generic drug called finasteride reduces the risk of prostate cancer by 25 percent, according to a 2003 study of 18,000 men." However, according to a new survey that "appears in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention," nearly "two-thirds of urologists and 80 percent of primary care doctors in the Veterans Health Administration system...say they never prescribe finasteride to prevent prostate cancer." Dr. Ian Thompson of the University of Texas Health Science Center, who "conducted the 2003" study, "thinks more doctors ought to prescribe the drug to prevent prostate cancer," an opinion shared by Dr. Linda Kinsinger "of the Veterans Health Administration, who led the new survey."