The Use of Androgen Deprivation Therapy (ADT) and Chemotherapeutic Agents in New Zealand Men with Prostate Cancer

Abstract

It was expected that all men diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer should be using ADT in the first year post-diagnosis. However, for more than one-fourth of men neither anti-androgens nor LHRH analogues were dispensed within this period. Chemotherapeutic agents were used very rarely, so it seems that both pharmacologic ADT and chemotherapy is under-utilised in New Zealand patients with advanced prostate cancer.