Impotence-free hormonal treatment of prostate cancer

Since the protein-specific antigen (PSA) test is systematically used in som e countries for cancer detection, many asymptomatic and latent cancer patie nts are uselessly victims of anxiety, hormonotherapy, and impotence, when t hey are not demolished by surgery and/or radiotherapy's local and/or region al complications. We propose to conduct a study of dexamethasone as treatment of such latent, small and even wrongly diagnosed cases. Certainly it exerts at small doses a discrete hormonal effect. But it has an anti-growth factor effect, which may explain its often beneficial action on prostate cancer with resistance to androgen inhibitors. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsev ier SAS.