TUESDAY, Jan. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Adding hormone therapy to radiation treatment for fast-moving prostate cancer can save lives, but the benefit often doesn't apply to men who have other serious medical problems, a new study shows.

"The new message from this study is that there definitely is a difference in outcome, depending on the gentleman's health," said Dr. Anthony V. D'Amico, chief of genitourinary oncology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. His report is published in the Jan. 23 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The old message, reported in 2004 on the five-year point of the study, was that treatment to suppress the activity of male hormones known as androgens improved survival of older men with aggressive prostate cancer, D'Amico said.

But the new report showed the benefit was limited to men without other serious medical problems. Adding hormone therapy to radiation treatment in the 206-man study decreased the rate of death significantly, but the benefit was confined to men without other health issues.

"This report is important, because it is part of a story that is emerging about hormone therapy in men with prostate cancer who are elderly," D'Amico said. "If a man is 75 and otherwise healthy, adding hormone therapy is likely to help. If the same man has had a heart attack or stroke, or if he is a smoker or diabetic, adding hormone therapy makes it worse."

In terms of clinical practice, the finding means that "before I treat him, I get him to a specialist and try to get his health cleared up as much as possible before giving the hormone therapy," D'Amico said. "If he has heart disease, I would consult a cardiologist; if a stroke, I would consult a neurologist; if diabetes, a diabetologist."

The idea is not anything new in medicine, he added. "It is the same as with a surgical procedure," D'Amico said. "You do not give the therapy until it is cleared by the appropriate specialist."

The study is relatively small and requires further confirmation, said Dr. Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colorectal cancer at the American Cancer Society.

"But for men trying to make a decision about prostate cancer treatment, it provides useful information for the men and their physicians," Brooks said. "A man who has had radiation treatment, if he and his doctor talk about the results of this study, it can help them make a decision about hormone treatment in a more informed way."

The results apply to "a significant percentage of older prostate cancer patients," Brooks said, noting that the average age of men in the study was over 70.

Until now, only general advice about hormone treatment could be given to such men, he said. "Now we can be a little more specific and say, 'If you don't have underlying cardiac disease or other major co-morbid conditions, the chance of having a good response to the treatment is better.' But many men with heart disease or other problems may decide they do not want to deal with the side effects of hormone treatment."

More information

Learn more about prostate cancer and its treatment from the American Cancer Society  .

THURSDAY, Feb. 7 (HealthDay News) -- In a finding that seems to turn conventional wisdom on its head, researchers report that babies of teenage fathers are more likely to be born with health problems than babies born to men over 40.

"We found that being a teenage father was associated with an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth, low birth weight and neonatal deaths," said Dr. Shi Wu Wen, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa Department of Epidemiology & Community Medicine.

In the study, Wen's team used data from the National Center for Health Statistics to collect information on 2,614,966 births in the United States between 1995 and 2000. To isolate the effects of the teen fathers' age on the outcome of pregnancy, the researchers compensated for the mother's contribution by choosing women 20 to 29 years old.

Women in this age group are less likely to be affected by fertility problems, which can have an effect on birth outcomes, Wen noted. "We also excluded infants with birth defects," he said. "This may explain why we didn't see adverse effects amongst older fathers."

The researchers found that babies born to teenage fathers had a 15 percent increased risk of premature birth, a 13 percent increased risk for low birth weight, and a 17 percent increased risk for being small for gestational age.

These babies also had a 22 percent increased risk of dying within the first month after birth, and a 41 percent increased risk of dying in the first four weeks to one year after birth, although the absolute risk was small -- less than 0.5 percent, the researchers said.

Babies of fathers 40 and older did not experience the same risks, Wen said.

"The public has paid attention to teenage pregnancy, but mostly to teenage mothers," Wen said. "But here we show that teenage fathers are also at high risk. The public and health agencies should pay attention to teenage fathers."

The findings are reported in the February issue of Human Reproduction.

Wen said it's not clear why infants of teenage fathers are at greater risk for health problems. However, he suspects that social factors such as income and lifestyle play a role.

"Young fathers have less stable employment," Wen said. "In addition, teenagers are at risk for more risky behavior like smoking and alcohol and drug use. These are known to be associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes.

"Teenage fathers may also be emotionally less stable," he added. "We know that stress is a risk factor for adverse pregnancy outcomes as well."

One expert agrees that more attention should be paid to teenage fathers and their contribution to the health of their children.

"Paternal age is an ignored and understudied and underestimated contributor to neonatal outcomes," said Dr. F. Sessions Cole, director of newborn medicine and head of the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Louis Children's Hospital. "It's 50 percent egg and 50 percent sperm that form the baby, and 100 percent of the blame is attributed to mothers," he said.

"The risk-taking behaviors of adolescent males probably are a significant part of the reason why their sperm are associated with more adverse neonatal outcomes," Cole said. "These risk-taking behaviors impact sperm in ways we don't know."

Cole believes teenage fathers, like teenage mothers, should receive prenatal counseling. "That way, a prospective father can get some sense of what he can do to optimize the outcome," he said.

More information

For more on healthy babies, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

MONDAY, Feb. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Among Americans diagnosed with kidney disease and high blood pressure, black men are least likely to have their blood pressure under control, which puts them at risk of life-threatening complications, a new study says.

Among people in the later stages of kidney disease, both black men and women were less likely than white men and women to have their blood pressure under control.

High blood pressure can worsen kidney disease, and some research suggests that controlling hypertension may play a major role in slowing progression of kidney disease, according to background information in the study, which looked at more than 10,000 people with kidney disease and hypertension.

"African-Americans with [kidney disease] progress more quickly to kidney failure, at which point they must receive a kidney transplant or regular dialysis to survive," study author Dr. O. Kenrik Duru, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a prepared statement.

"These findings suggest that their higher risk of kidney failure may stem, at least in part, from higher rates of uncontrolled high blood pressure," Duru said.

The study appears in the current issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

About 26 million Americans have kidney disease. People at increased risk for kidney disease include minorities, older adults and those with diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and a family history of kidney disease. Research has shown that blacks with kidney disease progress five times faster to kidney failure than whites with kidney disease.

"These findings propose new opportunities to eliminate health disparities in people most vulnerable to [kidney disease]," study co-author Dr. Allan J. Collins, president of the National Kidney Foundation, said in a prepared statement. "Treating high blood pressure aggressively in people with [kidney disease] could protect thousands -- if not millions -- of people from life-threatening complications of kidney failure."

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about chronic kidney disease  .