BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - Helen Keller once said, “often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” Accordingly, to our point of view, intracellular androgen receptors actually resemble the closed door since current hormonotherapy (focusing on the decrease of androgen stimulation, either by lowering androgen production or by blocking intracellular androgen receptor binding) has limited duration. Further hormonal manipulations (e.g., anti-androgen withdrawal or replacement) are not able to significantly prolong it.
On the other hand, membrane androgen receptors may resemble the opened door. In fact, current evidence suggests that the activation of membrane androgen receptors by the testosterone-albumin complex affects the apoptotic process, thus promoting the regression of prostate cancer. Investigation of the molecular pathways of apoptosis through activation of the membrane androgen receptors in the androgen-independent prostate cancer cell is important because future manipulation of this mechanism can help with understanding and interpreting to-date unknown characteristics of prostate cancer and can contribute to the establishment of activators of membrane androgen receptors. The latter could constitute a novel aspect in the classic viewing of hormonal therapy if we only take into consideration that testosterone-binding areas of the membrane constitute a constant feature of both positive, for androgen receptors cancer cells, as well as negative, regardless of the expression of intracellular receptors.
Written by:
Konstantinos Stamatiou as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com. This initiative offers a method of publishing for the professional urology community. Authors are given an opportunity to expand on the circumstances, limitations etc... of their research by referencing the published abstract.
Department of Urology, Tzaneio General Hospital of Piraeus, Piraeus, Greece.
Could testosterone have a therapeutic role in prostate cancer? - Abstract
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