Combination Therapy with Flutamide: The Therapy of Choice from Early to Advanced Stages of Prostate Cancer

Among all hormone-sensitive cancers, prostate cancer is recognised as being the most sensitive. In fact, the best known characteristic of prostate cancer is its marked sensitivity to androgen deprivation: when surgical or medical castration is used [1], a procedure limited to the blockade of testicular androgens, a response of limited duration is observed in 60% to 80% of patients [2]. Such a high rate of positive responses is already quite impressive since, as will be discussed later, testicular androgens account for only 60% of total androgens in 65-year-old men, thus leaving approximately 40% of androgens free to continue to stimulate prostate cancer [3].