Abstract
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in American men, representing one third of all new cases each year. Prior to 1941, there had been only anecdotal reports describing a relationship between androgens and prostate cancer. In that year, Huggins and Hodges demonstrated the beneficial effect of androgen–ablation on advanced prostate cancer upon treatment of a series of men with prostate cancer and skeletal metastases with either castration of or estrogen. This review begins with a description of the biology of the normal prostate to show the essentiality, but not exclusive dependence, of this gland upon androgen, and the contribution of, not only other hormones, but other agents, notably growth factors, on its function. Following sections describe the importance of genetics, the morphology and biochemistry of the developing disease, with attention to the important discoveries emerged. The non-genomic effects of androgen on prostate function, and the relationship of these to generation of ATP in an anaerobic environment is stressed. The concluding section deals with emerging concepts of metastasis and a brief survey of therapeutic control measure which Denmeade and Isaacs describe as the “good news” about prostate cancer management.