ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608220035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
The first head-to-head comparison of the nation's two most popular medicines for prostate trouble found that one gives significant relief while the other is virtually worthless.
The two medicines, Hytrin and Proscar, are taken by millions of older men to relieve the symptoms of an enlarged prostate gland. The study found that Hytrin eases men's discomfort by about one-third, while Proscar works no better than dummy sugar pills.
For most patients, Proscar is no more than ``an expensive placebo,'' said Dr. Herbert Lepor of New York University Medical Center, the study's director. Prostate drugs cost $30 to $45 a month.
The study was financed by Merck & Co., which makes Proscar, and Abbott Laboratories Inc., the maker of Hytrin. It was conducted on 1,229 men at Veterans Affairs hospitals.
Although both companies approved the study's design, Merck discounted its significance as publication approached in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Glenn Gormley, a Merck research official, said that in hindsight the study was not set up properly to answer the question of which drug is better. He said experts now know that Proscar works only in men whose prostate glands are larger than those typically seen in the study.
About two-thirds of American men suffer enlargement of the walnut-size prostate gland by the time they reach their 60s. Doctors call it benign prostatic hyperplasia, but it is benign only in the sense that it isn't cancerous.
The enlarged prostate gland squeezes the urethra, making it difficult to urinate. Often the bladder doesn't empty completely, so men are seized with an urgent need to go at inconvenient moments, often in the middle of the night.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB