How androgen receptors affect prostate cancer treatment

You probably have heard this statistic before, but it is worth stating again to highlight the importance of new findings into the causes and action of prostate cancer: prostate cancer kills 10,700 per year in the U.K. and is the most common form of cancer in men. There are multiple other statistics concerning the very real danger of developing prostate cancer, and you can be sure that this virulent form of cancer has a rightful place as a lead concern for men’s health.

In a new study analysing prostate cancer tissue, scientists discovered the reason why some patients don’t respond well to hormone treatment. They had originally thought that prostate cancer was only proliferated when androgen – the male hormone chemical – misfires when communicating with androgen receptors. Results from this ground-breaking tissue study show that even if the androgen receptors are stopped from firing by the suppression of androgen (the current treatment for prostate cancer) the receptors mutate to use fats and other compounds in order to grow.

The results of this research explain clearly why most respond well to hormone treatment while others don’t. It’s due to the fact that the androgen receptors mutate and continue to grow the cancer cells even after the hormone levels are being treated, and this seems to occur in a minority of individuals.

This is important news for stopping and healing prostate cancer, especially as it is one of the biggest killers in the U.K. These important findings may well lead to a new method of treatment that could help people who respond less well to hormone treatment. This new research could effectively improve the wellbeing of people with this disease, and in turn improve the life expectancy and wellness of our community as a whole.