Researchers said that men with advanced prostate cancer will have the chance to follow a new treatment that might help slow disease progression

Degarelix, a novel gonadotrophin-releasing hormone blocker, lowers the level of testosterone, in a different way than other medicines do it, as well as levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), according to Professor Hein Van Poppel of the Department of Urology at the University of Gasthuisberg.

The Food and Drug Administration said that treatment with degarelix doesn’t result in temporary spurt in the male hormone and tumor growth that most drugs do. 

"The reason we want to lower testosterone in prostate cancer is because it is a hormone-dependent cancer, and if you lower testosterone, you can stop it from growing," said Dr. E. David Crawford, a nationally recognized expert in prostate cancer, head of the Urologic Oncology at the University of Colorado-Denver.

But although results from clinical trials showed a substantial reduction in testosterone levels within days in most of the participating patients, the FDA said that the drug was as effective as leuprolide (Lupron) at maintaining hormone levels down. Lupron is also used to treat advanced prostate cancer in men, by reducing the production of testosterone levels.

"Hormone therapy is an effective way to treat this disease and control this disease, and in a number of people, give them very long term control of the disease," Dr. Crawford asserted.

Prostate cancer usually develops in men over fifty and is the most common type of cancer in men in the U.S., where it accounts for more male deaths than any other type of cancer, excluding lung cancer.