Do LHRH agonists, drugs like Lupron and Zoladex, increase a patient’s risk of getting a respiratory infection?

According to this article the answer is "yes." That conclusion is based on data from 52,905 men drawn from the SEER database. This paper adds to the long list of ADT side effects. 

A curious finding is that this increased risk is seen with chemical castration, but not with surgical castration. Such a difference has been previously reported for cardiovascular risk. Again, the risk is lower in men who are surgically castrated. This paper adds to growing evidence that the LHRH agonists drugs have specific adverse effects that are independent to the effects of androgen deprivation.

 

Schmid M, Hanske J, Ravi P, Krishna N, Reznor G, Meyer CP, Fisch M, Noldus J, Nguyen PL, & Trinh QD. (2016) Relationship between androgen deprivation therapy and community-acquired respiratory infections in patients with prostate cancer. Int J Urol www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26763083