Changes in thyroid function in prostate cancer patients receiving docetaxel chemotherapy at Haji Adam Malik Hospital, Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer treatment is determined based on several factors, namely tumor grading, staging, co-morbidity, patient preferences, life expectancy at diagnosis. Today, taxanes are commonly prescribed to treat several types of cancer and have been shown to have antitumor effects in many cancers. This research has never been done in prostate cancer patients but similar studies have been done before in breast cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The research design was observational analytic where this type of research was a prospective cohort where data was collected to record prostate cancer patients who received docetaxel chemotherapy which were then examined for thyroid function in cancer patients at the Adam Malik Hospital, Medan, Indonesia. RESULT: In this study, data were collected regarding the thyroid function of the study sample in the form of free thyroxine (fT4) and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels before chemotherapy with the docetaxel regimen. The mean of fT4 in all research subjects was 1.05 with a standard deviation of 0.26. The mean TSH in all study subjects was 1.52 with a standard deviation of 1.21. Thyroid function was examined after 3 cycles of docetaxel chemotherapy. The mean of fT4 in all research subjects was 0.91 with a standard deviation of 0.23. The mean TSH in all study subjects was 1.69 with a standard deviation of 1.09. CONCLUSION: There are traces of the use of docetaxel chemotherapy in prostate cancer patients on decreased thyroid function at the Adam Malik Hospital in the form of decreased fT4 levels and increased TSH.