The promiscuous receptor — Prostate Cancer Comes of Age

It has been known for almost a century that testosterone and its intracellular mediator, dihydrotestosterone, control the development and function of the prostate gland. Huggins and his colleagues used this knowledge to show that medical or surgical castration can cause regression of prostate cancer. This discovery led to one of the first, if not the first, effective therapies for prostate cancer.¹ Unfortunately, prostate cancer continues to be a leading cause of death from cancer in men because the response to castration is usually brief, and few effective alternative therapies are available. Indeed, elucidation of the biology of this tumor lags.