Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Apr;42(2):347-362.
doi: 10.5534/wjmh.220280. Epub 2023 Nov 7.

Frailty of Prostate Cancer Patients Receiving Androgen Deprivation Therapy: A Scoping Review

Jeongok Park  1 , Gi Wook Ryu  2 , Hyojin Lee  3 , Young Deuk Choi  4 , Youngkyung Kim  5
Affiliations

Frailty of Prostate Cancer Patients Receiving Androgen Deprivation Therapy: A Scoping Review

Jeongok Park et al. World J Mens Health. 2024 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the existing literature on frailty experienced by patients with prostate cancer (PC) receiving androgen deprivation therapy (ADT).

Materials and methods: Database and manual searches were conducted to identify relevant studies published in English, with no limitation on the year of publication, according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. Four databases-PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and CINAHL-were used for database searches and reference lists, related journals, and Google Scholar were used for manual searches.

Results: A total of 12 studies were analyzed for this scoping review. Of these, only 2 were intervention studies, and 1 was a randomized controlled trial. Among the two intervention studies, the multidisciplinary intervention program, including psychological counseling, nutritional coaching, and supervised group physical exercise did not show significant improvement in frailty. In contrast, high-dose vitamin D supplementation significantly decreased frailty. The conceptual and operational definitions of frailty used in each study varied, and the most used one was mainly focused on physical functions. As a result of analyzing the other health-related variables associated with frailty in patients with PC receiving ADT, age, metastases, comorbidities, and incident falls were related to a high frailty level. As for the physiological index, high levels of C-reactive protein, and interleukin-6, and fibrinogen, low levels of total testosterone, lymphocyte count, and creatinine were associated with a high level of frailty. A few studies explored the relationship between psychological and cognitive variables and frailty.

Conclusions: Further research related to frailty in patients with PC receiving ADT should be conducted, and effective interventions to manage frailty should be developed. Additionally, research that considers not only the physical domain of frailty but also the psychological, cognitive, and social domains needs to be conducted.

Keywords: Androgens; Frailty; Hormone replacement therapy; Prostatic neoplasms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have nothing to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. PRISMA flowchart for literature selection. PC: prostate cancer, ADT: androgen deprivation therapy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Clegg A, Young J, Iliffe S, Rikkert MO, Rockwood K. Frailty in elderly people. Lancet. 2013;381:752–762. Erratum in: Lancet 2013;382:1328. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ožić S, Vasiljev V, Ivković V, Bilajac L, Rukavina T. Interventions aimed at loneliness and fall prevention reduce frailty in elderly urban population. Medicine (Baltimore) 2020;99:e19145. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gobbens RJ, van Assen MA. The prediction of quality of life by physical, psychological and social components of frailty in community-dwelling older people. Qual Life Res. 2014;23:2289–2300. - PubMed
    1. Fried LP, Tangen CM, Walston J, Newman AB, Hirsch C, Gottdiener J, et al. Cardiovascular Health Study Collaborative Research Group. Frailty in older adults: evidence for a phenotype. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2001;56:M146–M156. - PubMed
    1. Sternberg SA, Wershof Schwartz A, Karunananthan S, Bergman H, Mark Clarfield A. The identification of frailty: a systematic literature review. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011;59:2129–2138. - PubMed

Publication types