How to prevent prostate cancer

Gina Kola in the NY Times explains that drugs found to be very effective in preventing prostate cancer do exist, but have been ignored:

And, it turns out, there is a way to prevent many cases of prostate cancer. A large and rigorous study found that a generic drug, finasteride, costing about $2 a day, could prevent as many as 50,000 cases each year. Another study found that finasteride’s close cousin, dutasteride, about $3.50 a day, has the same effect.

Nevertheless, researchers say, the drugs that work are largely ignored. And supplements that have been shown to be not just ineffective but possibly harmful are taken by men hoping to protect themselves from prostate cancer.

As the nation’s war on cancer continues, with little change in the overall cancer mortality rate, many experts on cancer and public health say more attention should be paid to prevention.

Promising, but non-pharmaceutical means of preventing prostate cancer might include the anti-inflammatory herb curcumin/tumeric -- see this article.   A new study suggests exercise may play a role in the prevention of prostate cancer.