Influence of androgen deprivation therapy on serum urate levels in patients with prostate cancer: A retrospective observational study

ObjectivesAlthough estrogenic modulation of serum urate levels is well-known, the androgenic effect on urate homeostasis remains controversial. We investigated the effect of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) on serum urate levels.MethodsWe retrospectively enrolled a total of 489 prostate cancer patients with available serum urate levels at baseline and 3 and 6 months after ADT (n = 150) or prostate surgery (n = 339). We extracted the demographic, clinical, and laboratory data from a data warehouse and compared the changes in urate levels between the two treatment groups and between the different ADT regimens (with versus without luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists) using generalized estimating equation (GEE).ResultsThe baseline urate levels and the proportion of hyperuricemic subjects were comparable between the two groups. After 6 months, the urate levels were significantly decreased (by −0.66 mg/dL, 95% confidence interval (CI) [-0.81 to -0.51]) in the ADT group, whereas they did not significantly change in the surgery group in the univariate GEE analysis. The ADT group (4.7% from 18.0% at baseline) had a significantly lower proportion of hyperuricemic patients than surgery group (16.5% from 15.9% at baseline) at 6-month (p ConclusionsOur results showed that longitudinal serum urate levels were significantly reduced in men receiving ADT. This finding suggests that androgen could have an independent role in urate homeostasis.