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Recent insights into androgen-receptor biology have provided compelling evidence to reject the notion that all patients with advanced prostate cancer eventually become androgen independent. To test whether inhibiting CYP17 (a cytochrome P450 enzyme that is critical to androgen and estrogen synthesis) would be effective in castration-resistant prostate cancer, investigators performed an industry-supported phase I/II trial of abiraterone, a selective and irreversible inhibitor of CYP17. Of 54 men enrolled in the study, all had been previously treated with castration only (thus, none had prior therapy with either chemotherapy or radiopharmaceuticals), and all but 4 had radiographic evidence of metastases.
After 12 weeks of treatment with abirat…