NEW YORK - Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who first disclosed that he had treatable prostate cancer in April, has begun a hormone treatment at Mount Sinai Medical Center but has yet to decide on a final treatment, the Daily News reported Saturday.
Citing unnamed sources familiar with Giuliani's medical situation, the newspaper said the mayor was being treated with Lupron, a medication that blocks the production of testosterone, the male hormone that prostate cancer cells thrive on.
The mayor's office refused to comment on the report Saturday.
Hormone blockers like Lupron cannot cure prostate cancer, but they can allow more time for evaluation of different therapies, the News said. They are sometimes used before surgery or radiation to shrink the prostate and reduce prostate specific antigen, or PSA, level.
The most common side effects of Lupron are hot flashes and impotence. Injections of the drug, which are administered monthly or quarterly, can hold the cancer at bay for years, doctors told the News.
Giuliani has repeatedly refused to answer most questions about his health since dropping out of the Senate race against first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on May 19. He has told reporters he will inform the public of his decision on a cancer treatment only when he feels he is ready to do so.
Cancer of the prostate, a gland involved in semen production, is the second most common type of cancer found in American men.