Present concept of the relevance of steroid receptors for prostatic cancer

Suitable assays for nuclear androgen-receptors in human prostatic cancer tissue have been presented. Correlations between NAR-content and response to hormonal therapy are demonstrated. The methods are time consuming and require expensive equipment as well as experience. Individual laboratory standards seem to determine response rates. The earlier methodological difficulties are replaced by a new set of problems for which as yet no single solution is available. As there is a tendency to use aspiration cytology more and more for diagnosis as well as follow-up of prostatic cancer, a cytochemical method would be extremely valuable. Research in that direction should be pursued.