Two drugs that treat prostate cancer may also be effective against leukemia

Medical Xpress / Pennsylvania State University / Blood Advances ^ | Nov. 13, 2025 | Katie Bohn / Fenghua Qian et al

[ConservativeMind]

Two FDA-approved drugs for treating prostate cancer may also be effective against acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a new study. AML, a cancer of blood and bone marrow, can affect people of all ages but is the most common type of leukemia in adults.

The research tested the ability of the two drugs—apalutamide and finasteride—to treat leukemia in experimental models. They found that the drugs were effective in treating mice with AML as well as patient-derived AML cells.

K. Sandeep Prabhu said the drugs work by inhibiting the pathway that is activated by dihydrotestosterone—an androgen hormone more potent than testosterone.

"Although androgen signaling is well-studied in prostate cancer, its role in AML has been under-explored," Prabhu said. "In our study, these two drugs effectively suppressed AML progression in both male and female mice, highlighting its potential for new uses for the drugs."

Before the current study, the connection between leukemia and androgen receptors was previously unknown, according to the researchers, who have also registered a patent for using the androgen receptor inhibitors to treat AML.

Fenghua Qian said the discovery came about when he was working on establishing a method to develop an AML mouse model. Qian found that some of the female mice failed to develop AML, but the disease was unusually aggressive in male mice.

The researchers found that in male mice, high dihydrotestosterone promoted the development of AML despite low androgen receptors in their leukemia cells. Meanwhile, even though female mice had low dihydrotestosterone, this was offset by high levels of androgen receptors in their leukemia cells. The team found this held true for AML cells transplanted from human patients into the mouse model, as well.

Finasteride slowed AML progression by inhibiting dihydrotestosterone while apalutamide worked by targeting a slightly different pathway in androgen receptor activity.

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: cancer; prostate

[ConservativeMind]

Finasteride is also just used for enlarged prostates and it is a common drug.

Apalutamide is used for prostate cancer.

These can slow the DHT pathway and therefore AML’s progress.

[ConservativeMind]

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[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Finasteride is also used to treat baldness in men. I took that stuff about 20 years ago for about a month and doh! oh oh, little willie stopped working so I was out of there, never again. I ain’t giving up that for freakin hair.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Ginger and Button mushrooms sold in grocery stores will help prevent and control Prostate cancer according to some research. Let your food be medicine and your medicine food. (I leave it to the readers to research it for themselves!)