Prostate therapy may help cancer spread

For years, patients with prostate cancer at risk of spreading were given hormone suppression therapy to weaken the cancer. New research suggests that it may promote metastasis ? the escape and spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body.

It?s too early to scrap androgen deprivation therapy ? which involves injected suppressants or surgical castration to reduce male hormones ? but Johns Hopkins researcher David Berman said patients who die because their disease spreads are almost certain to have received this type of therapy.