Word: antiandrogen
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...Prostate cancer, which kills 29,000 men in the U.S. each year, is a tenacious disease in advanced stages. The treatment of cancer that has metastasized beyond the prostate involves drugs that block male hormones, the androgens testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, which feed tumor growth. Antiandrogen drugs, like bicalutamide, work by binding to the androgen receptors on prostate-cancer cells, chemically preventing the hormones from interacting with the tumor. Over time, however, cancer cells become resistant to the drugs as the number of androgen receptors on the cells increases, and in a cruel twist, the drugs somehow begin to stimulate...
...Unlike typical antiandrogen cancer drugs, the new compounds appeared to work by more effectively blocking the androgen receptors on the cancer-cell surface, even when the total number of receptors on the cells was high, as is the case in resistance. (Read "Vitamins Do Not Prevent Prostate Cancer, Study Finds...
...drug had little effect in eight of the subjects in the early clinical trial. Sawyers' team is working on an answer. It's possible that the drug may have to be given in larger doses to some patients or that some prostate cancers may mutate to the point where antiandrogen drugs are simply ineffective. "There could be changes that are preventing the drug from binding," he says. "It's a bit like trying to hit a moving target." But for now, MDV3100 offers some potential as better ammunition...
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