Cancer and androgens

Male sex hormones weaken the immune response against cancer

Tatiana Matveeva, "Scientific Russia"

Men and women suffering from cancer of unproductive organs – for example, the bladder or liver – have different disease course. The male patient's body resists the disease worse. This is because, American scientists have found that androgens – male sex hormones – indirectly deplete immune cells that fight cancer, reports EurekAlert!. The scientists' findings are published in the journal Science Immunology (Kwon et al., Androgen conspires with the CD8+ T cell exhaustion program and contributes to sex bias in cancer).

The researchers studied the immune response to malignant neoplasms in men and women (not only in humans, but also in laboratory mice). The results showed that androgens – sex hormones that are more present in men – contribute to the depletion of CD8+ T cells - a population of cells that are often called killer cells (shown in pink in the photo).

Androgen signaling contributes to the phenotype of depleted CD8+ T progenitor cells due to the modulation of the expression of the TCF1 gene regulating the functions of CD8+ T cells.

"Androgen-mediated stimulation of CD8+ T cell dysfunction leads to faster tumor growth and a worse outcome [of the disease – HP.], and targeting this signaling cascade is crucial for improving modern methods of cancer immunotherapy," the authors note.

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