In a government-sponsored study released last month, healthy men who took finasteride (Proscar), currently approved to shrink enlarged prostates, experienced 25 percent fewer cases of prostate cancer than those taking a placebo. Overall, 18.4 percent of those taking finasteride got prostate cancer, compared to 24.4 percent on the placebo.

But the study, which involved 9,060 healthy men at least 55 years old, had a surprise: the drug appeared to increase men's risk for developing a less common but much more aggressive appearing prostate tumor. About 6.4 percent of the men in the finasteride group developed these more aggressive appearing tumors, compared to about 5.1 percent in the placebo group, a finding that was considered statistically significant.

** 94 men participated in this study through our MCRC-CCOP network of community hospitals.