The idea is to take a gene or gene fragment that can shut off the cancer process in those cells or kill them, tether that gene to a molecule of an androgen hormone, and send the combination into the patient. So says a report in Wednesday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute . Surgery is one of the most common ways to try to cure prostate cancer, the second-leading cancer killer of men.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men, after lung cancer.
About 317,000 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and 41,400 will die of it, the American Cancer Society estimates. For many men, it makes more sense to leave the cancer untreated than to risk surgical complications such as urinary incontinence or impotence.