Testosterone slows prostate cancer recurrence in low-risk patients

US researchers have found out that testosterone replacement slows the recurrence of prostate cancer in low-risk patients.One of the largest studies undertaken so far may call into question the general applicability of Nobel-Prize winning hormonal prostate treatment. The work was presented at the European Association of Urology congress in Barcelona.Doctors have long regarded testosterone as a hormone which promotes prostate cancer. The 1941 work of Huggins and Hodges won Huggins the 1966 Nobel Prize for Medicine, for reporting the dramatic impact of testosterone reduction on prostate cancer. Since then, medicines which reduce levels of the hormone testosterone have become a standard option for many patients.However, in the late 1990s to 2000s, doctors discovered that although men on long term anti-testosterone treatments were not dying from prostate cancer, they were dying prematurely of cardiovascular disease. It seemed that although anti-testosterone therapies were treating the ...