Diferelin® as an effective chemical castration agent for patients with prostate cancer

Abstract

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is one of the main treatments for patients with locally advanced and metastatic prostate cancer. ADT decreases the level of testosterone. Despite the development of new effective drugs in recent years, luteinizing gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists are frequently administered as ADT. One of the most commonly used first-line drugs is triptorelin (Diferelin®). In Russia, patients usually receive slow-release triptorelin administered once every month or every 3 months (intramuscular injections) and once every 3 months (subcutaneous injections); the result of using different dosage forms is comparable. Triptorelin effectively keeps serum testosterone level below 20 ng/dL, thereby increasing the time to development of castration-resistant prostate cancer, overall survival of patients receiving combination treatment with radiotherapy, and reduces the severity of symptoms from the lower urinary tract. Triptorelin has a good safety profile and is generally well tolerated by patients.