Re: Testosterone Treatment Is a Potent Tumor Promoter for the Rat Prostate

This animal study compared the effect of testosterone sup-plementation on prostatic and all-site carcinogenesis in the male rat after androgen deprivation treatment (n = 28–30 per treatment group). Using various treatment approach models, rats aged 10–12 wk were pretreated with antiandrogen ther-apy for 3 wk, subsequently had testosterone replaced with injectable testosterone propionate for 3 d, and finally were treated with the toxic compound N-nitroso-N-methylurea (NMU) to induce carcinogenesis. After this pretreatment regi-men, various numbers of slowly eluting testosterone implants were placed in the rats, including a placebo. Previous studies have shown prostatic carcinogenesis using a combination of NMU and implantable testosterone; this study aimed to pro-vide dose-response data. An increase inserumtestosteronewasonly seen for twoo