Intermittent androgen deprivation therapy: schedule modifications based ona novel in vivo human xenograft model

In most clinical trials of intermittent androgen deprivation (IAD), the dec ision to stop androgen withdrawal is based on monitoring PSA levels, waitin g for its drop to nadir. Based on in vitro pre-clinical studies, a modified 'on - off' schedule of short intervals of androgen deprivation, designated pulsed androgen deprivation (PAD), is proposed to destroy androgen depende nt (AD) cells more gradually and to conserve their androgen-independent (AI ) inhibitory potential for longer periods, resulting in an overall prolonga tion of time to hormone resistant progression.