Prostate cancer therapy weakens muscle strength
Australian researcher hopes the findings will encourage doctors to test for muscle to fat ratio
The gold standard treatment for prostate cancer is leaving men with less muscle strength and relatively low muscle mass compared with healthy men, researchers from Deakin University say.
Their study shows men undergoing androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer have a high fat-to-muscle ratio.
They have the same total muscle mass compared with other men but 4-6kg more fat mass.
The study examined the muscle and fat in 70 men treated with ADT for prostate cancer compared with 52 men with prostate cancer not treated with hormone therapy, and 70 healthy men of a similar age.
