Huggins found that prostate cancer cells also retained a physiological “memory” of their origin. When he removed the testicles of prostate cancer–bearing dogs, thus acutely depriving the cancer cells of testosterone, the tumors also involuted within days. In fact, if normal prostate cells were dependent on testosterone for survival, then malignant prostate cells were nearly addicted to the hormone—so much so that the acute withdrawal acted like the most powerful therapeutic drug conceivable. “Cancer is not necessarily autonomous and intrinsically self-perpetuating,” Huggins wrote. “Its growth
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