PURPOSE Androgen replacement therapy has been shown to be safe and effective for most patients with testosterone deficiency. Male partners of infertile couples often report significantly poorer sexual activity and complain androgen deficiency symptoms. We report herein an adverse effect on fertility caused by misusage of androgen replacement therapy in infertile men with hypogonadal symptoms. ...

BACKGROUND Distant prostate cancers are commonly hormone refractory and exhibit increased growth no longer inhibited by androgen deprivation therapy. Understanding all molecular mechanisms contributing to uncontrolled growth is important to obtain effective treatment strategies for hormone refractory prostate cancers (HRPC). The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) affects a number of biological pro...

In the coding part and the intron-exon boundaries of the androgen-receptor gene of a patient with partial androgen insensitivity, no mutation was found. The androgen receptor of this patient displayed normal ligand-binding parameters and migrated as a 110-112-kD doublet on SDS-PAGE in the absence of hormone. However, after culturing of the patient's genital skin fibroblasts in the presence of h...

Suppression of androgen production and function provides palliation but not cure in men with prostate cancer (PCa). Therapeutic failure and progression to hormone-refractory PCa (HRPC) are often accompanied by molecular alterations involving the androgen receptor (AR). In this study, we report novel forms of AR alteration that are prevalent in HRPC. Through in silico sequence analysis and subse...

Androgen ablation therapy is currently the primary treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. Unfortunately, in nearly all cases, androgen ablation fails to permanently arrest cancer progression. As androgens like testosterone are withdrawn, prostate cancer cells lose their androgen sensitivity and begin to proliferate without hormone growth factors. In this study, we constructed and analyzed a ...

The androgen-androgen receptor signaling pathway plays an important role in the pathogenesis of prostate cancer. Accordingly, androgen deprivation has been the most effective endocrine therapy for hormone-dependent prostate cancer. Here, we report a novel pregnane X receptor (PXR)-mediated and metabolism-based mechanism to reduce androgenic tone. PXR is a nuclear receptor previously known as a ...

Ablation of the androgen-signaling axis is currently a dominant theme in developmental therapeutics in prostate cancer. Highly potent inhibitors of androgen biosynthesis and androgen receptor (AR) function have formally improved survival in castration-resistant metastatic disease. Resistance to androgen-ablative strategies arises through diverse mechanisms. Strategies to preserve and extend the...

The parent Shionogi mouse mammary carcinoma is androgen dependent but cells that survive hormone withdrawal progress and give rise to an androgen-independent tumor. To determine whether renewed growth might be attributed to the persistence or partial recovery of an androgenic stimulus, we compared the amount of dihydrotestosterone and nuclear androgen receptor in parent and recurrent tumors. Th...

OBJECTIVES Androgen-deprivation therapy effectively shrinks hormone-naïve prostate cancer, both in the prostate and at sites of distant metastasis. However prolonged androgen deprivation generally results in relapse and androgen-independent tumour growth, which is inevitably fatal. The molecular events that enable prostate cancer cells to proliferate in reduced androgen conditions are poorly un...

PTEN mutations are among the most frequent genetic alterations found in human prostate cancers. Our previous works suggest that although precancerous lesions were found in Pten heterozygous mice, cancer progression and metastasis only happened when both alleles of Pten were deleted. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the role of PTEN in prostate cancer control, we generated two p...