Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Heart Disease, Testosterone / 27.05.2014

Robert S. Tan MD, MBA, AGSFMedicalresearch.com Interview with: Robert S. Tan MD, MBA, AGSF Clinical Director & Chief Geriatrics, Michael DeBakey VAMC Director, Opal Medical, LLC Clinical Professor of Family & Community Medicine, UTHSC-Houston Associate Professor of Medicine (Geriatrics), Baylor College Medicine Medicalresearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Tan: Our findings¹ are similar to that of an early study by Shores et al ² and other studies on endogenous testosterone that found testosterone lowered mortality. In the analysis of 39,937 patients at the Low T Centers up to 5 years, the rate ratios of new MI and strokes on testosterone as compared to general community based data sets (3,4) was 0.12 (C.I. 0.08-0.18, p<0.0001) and 0.05 (C.I 0.02-0.13, p<0.0001) respectively. Thus, there appears to be a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes with patients on testosterone. While the compared population sets are not identical or real controls; our study does suggest that rates of MI and strokes in real life practice with testosterone treated patients are even lower than the general population registries (which may include older patients). (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Prostate Cancer, Testosterone / 07.05.2014

dr_san_franciscoMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Ignacio F. San Francisco Departamento de Urología, Facultad de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Increasingly, men with low-risk prostate cancer are undergoing a close monitoring regimen called active surveillance, instead of moving forward immediately with treatment. However it is still unclear which men will develop evidence for worsening or more aggressive disease during active surveillance. In this study of 154 men with Gleason 6 prostate cancer followed for 38 months, we found that low levels of free testosterone were significantly associated with increased risk of developing more aggressive disease. We found no significant association with total testosterone concentrations, although there was a general trend towards increased risk with lower levels. (more…)
Author Interviews, Endocrinology, Testosterone / 10.01.2014

J. Bradley Layton, PhD Postdoctoral Research Associate University of North Carolina at Chapel HillMedicalResearch.com Interview with: J. Bradley Layton, PhD Postdoctoral Research Associate University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Layton: Use of testosterone testing and treatment had greatly increased over the past decade, with more pronounced increases seen in the United States than in the United Kingdom. The increases in testing in the UK seem to be targeted, identifying more men with reduced testosterone levels, but the increases in the US seem to be identifying more and more men with normal levels. Many of the men who begin testosterone treatment in the US appear to have normal testosterone levels to begin with. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Testosterone / 25.11.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bledar Daka MD, PhD-student. University of Gothenburg in Sweden MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of your study? Answer: The main finding of our study was that low testosterone levels were associated with MI in both men and women but the association was stronger in men with type 2 diabetes. This finding was in concert with findings that could associate the CVD death with low levels of testosterone especially in elder men. (more…)
Author Interviews, Endocrinology, JCEM, Testosterone / 23.11.2013

Dr Bu Beng Yeap MBBS, FRACP, PhD Professor, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia Endocrinologist, Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Fremantle Hospital. School of Medicine and Pharmacology
Level 2, T Block, Fremantle Hospital, Alma Street, Fremantle, Western Australia 6160, AustraliaMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Bu Beng Yeap   MBBS, FRACP, PhD Professor, School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia Endocrinologist, Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Fremantle Hospital. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We found that older men with testosterone levels in the middle of the range had the lowest mortality risk. Having a low testosterone level predicted higher mortality, and there was no benefit of having a high-normal testosterone level. Men with optimal rather than high testosterone levels lived longest. The other important finding was that men with higher dihydrotestosterone levels had lower mortality from ischaemic heart disease, suggesting that androgens may protect against heart disease in older men. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Chemotherapy, Hormone Therapy / 23.04.2013

MedicalResearch.com eInterview with Andrew Weickhardt, MBBS, DMedSc, FRACP MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Weickhardt: The study was hoping to confirm our earlier published observation that crizotinib use led to low testosterone in male patients. The earlier study was based on our observation of symptoms of low testosterone in some patients treated with the drug, and had suggested strongly that crizotinib led to rapid decrease in testosterone levels, however this was based only on a single center's patients, and only 19 patients. We hoped to do this by surveying a larger population of crizotinib treated patients across multiple institutions. We serially measured several relevant hormones. (more…)