A study released today in the Journal of the American Medical Association discovered that generally used hormone-blocking drugs in the treatment for prostate cancer did not expand survival likelihood for men over 65 with early-stage tumors and that in fact, it might be risky.

The analysis found that men who were given the certain medication were, to some extent, more likely to die of prostate cancer during the next six years than men who had received medical supervising but no or suspended treatment.

The study was carried on almost 20,000 Medicare patients suffering of prostate cancer that had not spread up to that moment. An unexpected 41 percent got only medication treatment, in either shots or implants, proving that the therapy has developed into a widespread substitute of surgery or radiation, the study authors said.

Other specialists said the report offers physicians vital information upon the way to remedy older men with slow-growing affection that has not spread beyond the prostate. Nevertheless, the study did not verify whether hormone-blocking drugs alone help younger men or evaluate that treatment in comparison with radiation or surgery.

The drugs cease the production of testosterone, which feeds cancer cells. At times, they are prescribed in addition to surgery or radiation. Taking them alone is not very conventional, but is a progressively more used method, especially among older men, according to the study.

As said by the Associated Press, lead author of the research, Dr. Grace Lu-Yao of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, said that the group of scientists that had worked on the project hoped their study would stimulate doctors to pass up hormone-blocking drugs alone in older men with early-stage tumors.