Focusing on testosterone

Abstract

Since Huggins and Hodges first established testosterone as the principal androgenic hormone responsible for the growth of prostate cancer in 1941, lowering the circulating testosterone to surgical castration levels (<50 ng/dL) has been a fundamental strategy for prostate cancer therapy. Until the 1980s, surgical castration (bilateral orchiectomy) and medical castration using estrogen (diethylstilbestrol) were the primary methods of testosterone suppression. However, during the past 30 years, newer agents that lower serum testosterone even more effectively have been approved and the indications for use of these newer agents re-evaluated.