The Food and Drug Administration has warned about the health risks the prostate cancer drug carries and has called on product makers to add new warning information to the product package.

The FDA said the product can increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes, heart attack, stroke and sudden death.

The drug, known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), is sold under the brand names Eligard, Lupron, Synarel, Trelstar, Vantas, Viadur and Zoladex. It also has generic versions.

GnRH is used to suppress the production of testosterone, a hormone that helps fuel prostate cancer growth.

The drugs are approved to relieve symptoms of advanced prostate cancer in a treatment known as androgen deprivation therapy which slows the growth of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer affecting American men following skin cancer.

Approximately 217,730 men will be diagnosed with the disease this year of which 32,050 will die from it, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.