Upregulation of the androgen receptor during prostate cancer progression

The androgen receptor is one of the central factors in mediating prostate cancer progression and is an important target for treatment. Several possible mechanisms have been put forth as to how it promotes this process. In the January 2004 issue of Nature Medicine, Chen et al. report that the androgen receptor is consistently upregulated as hormone sensitive prostate cancer changes to a hormone refractory state. They also show that this change is intricately involved during the development of resistance to androgen ablation therapy.