Finasteride and Prostate Cancer

Doc, i have another question. Since I am a healthy 25 year old (who takes propecia), with no family history of prostate cancer, does that mean that I should start having annual PSA and prostate exams right now at this young age as well?

I have have another question. Does finasteride directly causes high grade malignancy in some patients. or does it just delay the diagnosis of cancer cells which if left end up being high grade?(meaning that finasteride doesn’t cause cancer itself but just delays the diagnosis of early stage prostate cancer which later become more aggresive).

At 25 years old, it would be very, very unusual for you to develop prostate cancer.

With regard to the risk of developing a high grade malignancy from taking finasteride, I would doubt that the answers are in yet. The finding of the higher grade malignancies reported may reflect prostate shrinkage. We would need to know what the survival rate of these men who have reported higher grade malignancies is. If those that have the reports have a higher mortality rate than other men with known cancer of the prostate, then I’d believe that there is real risk, not just interpretive risks classified by pathologists.