'Acute on chronic' effect of depot leuprolide in patients with stage D2 cancer of prostate

During a phase III open study of depot leuprolide for stage D2 cancer of the prostate, we studied the effect of depot leuprolide on chronic leuprolide users. To determine whether there was a transient elevation of testosterone or luteinizing hormone (LH) 4–24 h and 3–5 days following the monthly injections, we monitored the changes of testosterone and LH before injection and 24 h post-injection in 10 patients who have been under depot leuprolide Rx for 24–36 weeks, and in 35 patients before injection and 3–5 days post-injection who have received depot leuprolide for 8–24 weeks prior to monitoring. Comparison of the data between pre-injection within 24 h and 3–5 days post-injection showed no significant changes of testosterone and LH values between these levels for either testosterone (P = 0.31) or LH (P = 0.45). We therefore conclude that there was no 'acute on chronic' effect of depot formulation in chronic users of depot leuprolide.