Clinical evaluation of tamsulosin in the relief of lower urinary tract symptoms in advanced prostate cancer patients

• Published in: International urology and nephrology 2017-07, Vol.49 (7), p.1111-1117
• Main Authors: Zhang, Tong, Wu, Haihu, Liu, Shuai, He, Wei, Ding, Kejia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adrenergic alpha-1 Receptor Antagonists - adverse effects; Adrenergic alpha-1 Receptor Antagonists - therapeutic use; Aged; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols - therapeutic use; Flutamide - administration & dosage; Goserelin - administration & dosage; Humans; Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms - drug therapy; Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms - etiology; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Nephrology; Prostate cancer; Prostate-specific antigen; Prostatic Neoplasms - complications; Prostatic Neoplasms - drug therapy; Quality of Life; Severity of Illness Index; Sulfonamides - adverse effects; Sulfonamides - therapeutic use; Time Factors; Urinary tract; Urodynamics - drug effects; Urogenital system; Urology; Urology – Original Paper
• ISSN: 0301-1623; 1573-2584
• DOI: 10.1007/s11255-017-1591-1

Purpose To assess the effectiveness and safety of tamsulosin combined with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in advanced prostate cancer (PC) patients. Methods Ninety PC patients with moderate-to-severe LUTS randomized into two groups of 45 each. One group received ADT (group 1), and the other received ADT plus tamsulosin (group 2) for 24 weeks. The outcome measures were changes in the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), IPSS obstructive and irritative subscores, quality of life (QoL), maximum urinary flow rate ( Q max ), post-voiding residual (PVR) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) from baseline. The treatment response was monitored at 8, 16 and 24 weeks. Results Both ADT monotherapy and ADT plus tamsulosin significantly improved IPSS,QoL score, Q max and PVR at the end of the treatment period. ADT plus tamsulosin had a greater impact on total IPSS, IPSS obstructive subscore, QoL and PVR at week 8 and week 16 than ADT monotherapy. Tamsulosin group showed greater improvement in Q max than ADT group. Significant improvements of IPSS, IPSS obstructive subscore and QoL were achieved at early treatment stage (week 8) in group 2, whereas similar improvements were achieved at week 16 in group 1. There were no significant differences in IPSS, IPSS subscores, QoL and PVR between the two groups at week 24. Conclusions Additional administration of tamsulosin showed significantly greater and sooner relief in LUTS than ADT monotherapy, with good acceptability. It is feasible that ADT is used alone after 16–24 weeks of combination therapy.