Background Patients with a high risk or locally advanced prostate cancer should be treated with hormone treatment for at least 2 years. Rational drug selection in this drug class is therefore important.

Purpose To apply the SOJA method to GnRH (LHRH) (ant)agonists.

Materials and methods The following drugs were included in the analysis: buserelin, goserelin, leuprorelin, triptorelin, abarelix and degarelix. Selection criteria were: Clinical efficacy (300 points), safety (200), tolerability (120), dosage frequency (80), user-friendly formulation (80), drug interactions (60), precautions (60) and documentation (100). Acquisition cost was not taken into consideration to allow a preselection on quality aspects only.

Results Goserelin and leuprorelin got the highest scores and were the most suitable for formulary inclusion. Buserelin and triptorelin had a similar pattern of efficacy and safety, but were less well documented. Abarelix and degarelix got lower scores, based on lesser documentation, more drug interactions and a higher dosage frequency. Acquisition cost should be the determining factor in the final selection.

Conclusions The recent introduction of generics may reduce drug expenditure in the treatment of prostate cancer.

No conflict of interest.