The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) have conducted visits and written reports criticising the surgical castration of sex offenders in the Czech Republic and Germany. They claim that surgical castration is degrading treatment and have called for an immediate end to this practice. The Czech and German governments have publish...

When the vehicle-treated, sham-operated mice underwent heat stress, the fraction survival and core temperature at +4 h of body heating were found to be 5 of 15 and 34.4 degrees C +/- 0.3 degrees C, respectively. Castration 2 weeks before the start of heat stress decreased the plasma levels of testosterone almost to zero, protected the mice from heat-induced death (fraction survival, 13/15) and ...

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta1 is induced in the prostate after castration and has been implicated in apoptosis of epithelial cells during involution. TGF-beta1-mediated receptor activation induces phosphorylation of Smad2 and Smad3, which form complexes with Smad4, that translocate to the nucleus to regulate transcription of target genes. Smad6 and Smad7 antagonize the action of signal...

A common treatment of advanced prostate cancer involves the deprivation of androgens. Despite the initial response to hormonal therapy, eventually all the patients relapse. In the present study, we sought to determine whether dietary polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) affects the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer. Cell culture, patient tissue microarray, allograft, xenograft, p...

Castration-resistant prostate cancer is an incurable heterogeneous disease that is characterized by a complex multistep process involving different cellular and biochemical changes brought on by genetic and epigenetic alterations. These changes lead to the activation or overexpression of key survival pathways that also serve as potential therapeutic targets. Despite promising preclinical result...

Degarelix (FE 200486) is a member of a new class of water-soluble (>50 mg/ml) gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists in clinical development for prostate cancer. Upon subcutaneous administration, degarelix forms a gel that results in a sustained release of the compound into the circulation, immediately blocking GnRH receptors in the pituitary and inducing a fast and sustained suppres...

Up to the present time, many papers have been published on the relationship between the thyroid gland and the gonads, but these are chiefly confined to the gross anatomical, physiological, biochemical and clinical aspects. These pioneer studies have created an urgent need for precise histological evidence of the results obtained. The literature on the histology of mammalian thyroid glands follo...

BACKGROUND Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) demonstrates a prognostic impact in small studies of metastatic prostate cancer (MPC). METHODS A systematic review was conducted to identify publications and presentations exploring the association of serum CRP and overall survival (OS) in MPC, both castration-sensitive and castration-resistant. Heterogeneity among trials was assessed using Cochrane's...

androgens have been shown to affect cognitive aspects of spatial memory. testosterone which is the most important androgen, plays a role in the organization of behavior during development. also, it has been shown that androgens cause sex related differences in learning and memory especially during neonatal period. in the current study, we assessed the effects of castration and testosterone enan...

Standard initial therapy for metastatic prostatic cancer involves surgical or chemically induced castration. Castration lowers the serum testosterone level by over 90% but does not completely eliminate all potential serum androgens (i.e., it induces a partial androgen withdrawal). This has led some investigators to suggest that a more complete form of androgen withdrawal in which the very low l...