Pathological growth of androgensensitive tissues resulting from latent actions of steroid hormones.

Hormonal responsiveness should be considered in terms of at least three homeostatic constraint mechanisms. Observations on the induction of specific responses in rat prostate reveal that certain of these are controlled differentially, and also that immature cells can be modified by low levels of androgen. The conditioning effect of low levels of steroid is further demonstrated by the benefits of fractional hormone-replacement therapy in controlling and delaying tumor progression. A revised approach to endocrine therapy of cancer should be seriously considered. This would entail the fractional replacement of hormone after ablative surgery.