Blocking Testosterone Could Reduce Covid-19 Deaths But Will Men Accept It?

workforce who are receiving androgen deprivation therapies ( ADT ) for prostate gland Crab appear to be less potential to capture Covid-19 than those not on ADT . The reflexion could help explicate why menare twice as likelyto die of the virus as women . Although in theory it opens up a potential form of protection , it also faces a possible obstacle in public acceptance .

More valet de chambre die of Covid-19 than women , although contagion rate are more even . Several theory have been pop the question as to why this might be andProfessor Andrea Alimontiof the Università della Svizzera Italiana ( bewilderingly located in Switzerland ) find a way to home in on the causal agency .

Prostate cancer is oftentimes plow with ADT , which prevent testosterone yield or stymy its back to receptors , as the cancers expand on manful endocrine and crave without . If these hormones ( known as androgenic hormone ) are the problem , suppressing them with ADT might save life .

In theAnnals of Oncology ,   Prof. Alimonti provides grounds in favor of the idea .

Alimonti report cancer , admit prostate gland cancer , was a risk of exposure factor for being diagnose with Covid-19 in Italy ’s intemperately - hit Vento region . Whether this was because the Cancer the Crab lowers defenses , or if existent affected role were just more likely to be test is unclear .

Either way , men with Crab were 1.8 time as probable to be diagnosed with Covid-19 as men without . But this reversed for men on ADT .

Among men with prostate Crab not on ADT , the infection rate was 0.31 pct during the period Alimonti analyze , somewhat less than the proportion for other Cancer . For the   more than 5,000 men on ADT the pace was a quarter that .

Without a randomized tryout , it ’s possible there ’s some other difference between the man on ADT and those who are n’t that accounts for the remainder , but it ’s not obvious what this might be . Moreover , a sixth of cancer affected role , prostate cancer included , who got Covid-19 expire , but all those on ADT make it , although a sample of four is not statistically significant .

“ We … have plant that those being treated with ADT for prostate Cancer the Crab are protect , even though all patient with malignant neoplastic disease have a big risk of Covid-19 infection than non - cancer patients , ” Alimonti said in astatement .

Men with severe Covid-19 symptom , like those with aggressive prostate gland cancer , might be willing to try just about anything in the hope of survival of the fittest , but Alimonti also suggests something more ultra . In addition to giving impermanent ADT to men infected with the coronavirus , he proposes those at greatest hazard of catch the computer virus use ADT until the danger has passed . Although Alimonti assures us testosterone levels return to normal once a patient proceed off ADT , this could be a hard sell , considering the most coarse form of ADT is also known aschemical castration .