The hormone testosterone, which fuels the growth of prostate cancer, unexpectedly stymies the disease in certain cases, according to researchers who found it made tumors more vulnerable to treatment in some patients.
Prostate cancer is the most common tumor in men. It typically kills after tumors stop responding to drugs that block the production of testosterone and its receptors. That approach, called androgen deprivation therapy, has been standard for 70 years.
"This is really the most lethal form of prostate cancer," said Michael Schweizer, the study's lead researcher from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. "Once people progress to this stage, it's when we start to worry that they're at a much higher risk for dying from prostate cancer."