Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 15 pp 5613—5627
Androgen deprivation therapy increases brain ageing
- 1 Department of Neuroscience, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, S/C de Tenerife, CP 38320, Spain
- 2 Department of Urology, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, S/C de Tenerife, CP 38320, Spain
Received: June 12, 2019 Accepted: July 30, 2019 Published: August 2, 2019
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102142How to Cite
Copyright © 2019 Plata-Bello et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 3.0 License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background: Prostate cancer (PC) is the most frequent neoplasia in the male population and androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is frequently used in the management of the disease.
Aim: To evaluate the effect of ADT exposure on cognitive status, grey matter volume (GMV) and white matter lesion (WML) load.
Methods: Fifty ADT patients and fifteen PC-non-ADT (control) patients were included in the study. A neuropsychological evaluation was performed and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), with anatomical T1 and FLAIR sequences, was performed to evaluate the GMV and the WML burden.
Results: Most of the patients included in the study presented a significant cognitive impairment (CI). No significant differences were identified in the cognitive assessment between the studied groups, but when considering the educational background intragroup differences were found.
No significant difference of GMV and WML volume were identified between groups, but a negative relationship between the ADT period and the GMV was identified. Furthermore, a significant positive association between the age and the lesion volume was found in the ADT group (β=.406; p=.004).
Conclusion: PC patients exposed to ADT present an acceleration of age-related brain changes, such as WML development and GMV loss.