Treatment of metastatic prostate cancer - Lessons from the androgen receptor

Androgen ablative therapy for prostate cancer has long been recognized to have a finite duration of response. The pathogenesis of recurrent or androgen-independent (AI) disease, however, still is not known. It has been determined recently that the androgen receptor (AR) often is expressed in AI metastatic disease. The AR expressed by recurrent prostate cancers may have mutations that alter the receptor such that it can be activated by hormones other than testosterone. These new insights may have implications for subsequent hormonal therapy for AI disease.