New Drugs, New Ways to Target Androgens in Prostate Cancer Therapy, University of Colorado Study

Prostate cancer cells require androgens including testosterone to grow. A recent review in the British Journal of Urology International describes new classes of drugs that target androgens in novel ways, providing alternatives to the traditional methods that frequently carry high side effects. "In many ways, therapies for prostate cancer have led the way in the fight against the disease," says E. David Crawford, MD, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and review co-author. "The first effective oral therapy for any cancer was estrogen which was described in 1941. The first cancer biomarker that allowed diagnosis and staging was prostatic acid phosphatase back in 1938. Then there was little progress for over four decades."

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