Blood Test for DHT:3-beta-5-alpha-androstanediol ratio

[drbarrywheeler]

Hi,

I have been reading this forum for some time now and appreciate how educated everyone here seems to be about lab testing. I write articles for Meridian Valley Lab and just wrote a new article about the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT), which as you probably know was a large clinical trial of finasteride vs placebo. There is a growing body of evidence that ratio of DHT to 3-beta-5-alpha-androstanediol (3-beta adiol) is more important than the the level of DHT alone in terms of prostate cancer risk. 3-beta adiol is an estrogen receptor agonist. When estrogen receptor beta is activated by an agonist it appears to have tissue differentiating effects (vs the dedifferentiating and potentially cancer inducing effects of DHT).

“Investigations in our laboratories showed that a steroid, 5a-androstane-3b,17b-diol (3b-androstanediol), a metabolite of dihydrotestosterone, has all the characteristics of the natural ligand for ER-b.4 The pathway presented in Figure 1 is our view of the balance between androgen receptors and ER-b. Dihydrotestosterone is the fulcrum in this balance. It suggests that finasteride, by blocking the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, inhibits the production of 3b-androstanediol, thus suppressing ER-b and preventing the differentiation of epithelium. This mechanism could account for the higher incidence of poorly differentiated tumors in the finasteride group in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial.”*

Dr. Jonathan Wright, MD discusses the PCPT: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6bIBY1GoIw[/youtube]

You can read my full article here: http://meridianvalleylab.com/prostate-cancer-risk-markers/

*Imamov O, Lopatkin N, Gustafsson JA. Estrogen Receptor b in Prostate Cancer. N Engl J Med 2004; 351:2773-2774.

[BadLuck]

Dr Wheeler - Thanks for the information. Were finasteride’s sexual side effects studied in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial (PCPT) clinical trial of finasteride vs placebo?