Effects of Short-Term Finasteride on Apoptotic Factors and Androgen Receptors in Prostate Cancer Cells

The 2009 study investigated the impact of short-term finasteride treatment on prostate cancer cells, involving 22 patients who received finasteride and 20 who received a placebo. The treatment, given for at least 30 days before surgery, resulted in a significant decrease in the apoptotic factors caspase-7 and IGFBP-3 in the cancer cells, with no significant effect on other factors like caspase-3, IGF-1, bcl-2, p53, and p21, or on androgen receptor expression. The study concluded that finasteride may reduce certain apoptotic factors in cancer cells, but the implications of these findings for long-term treatment and their relevance to the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial require further investigation due to the study's short duration and small sample size.