Circulating testosterone, prostatic nuclear androgen receptor and time to progression in patients with metastatic disease of the prostate treated by orchiectomy.

The content of nuclear androgen receptors (ARn) in prostatic carcinoma biopsies is not predictive for the duration of response of the tumor to endocrine therapy. Recently pre-treatment plasma testosterone has been suggested to be predictive in this respect. Therefore, pre-treatment plasma testosterone (T) and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) levels were studied in 31 patients aged 72 +/- 10 years (range: 45-87) with stage D2 carcinoma of the prostate treated by orchiectomy. In 26 of these patients, the ARn level of the carcinoma was also known (61 +/- 41 fmol/mg protein; range 0-169). Plasma T levels (mean: 13.7 +/- 6.1 nmol/l) varied widely (range: 2.4-25.4), as did plasma SHBG (32.5 +/- 19.3 nmol/l; range 4.4-78.8), and time to progression (TTP; 14.6 +/- 11.2 months; range 1-48). Plasma T was found to be correlated to age (Rs = 0.537; P less than 0.01) and TTP (Rs = 0.4495; P less than 0.02). Tissue ARn and plasma SHBG did not correlate to any of the parameters studied.