In the multicentre Veterans Affairs (VA) Cooperative Study, the &agr;-blocker terazosin proved superior to the 5&agr;-reductase inhibitor finasteride for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).1Adding finasteride to terazosin offered no symptomatic benefits above those obtained with the &agr;-blocker alone, and finasteride monotherapy proved not to be statistically better than placebo. Investigators are still trying to clarify the therapeutic niches for &agr;-blockers and for finasteride. This process continued at the recent American Urological Association meeting [San Diego, US; June 1998].