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.