An international research team led by the Medical University of Vienna has demonstrated for the first time that thyroid hormone plays a key role in the development and progression of prostate cancer. By blocking a specific thyroid hormone receptor, cancer growth was inhibited in both animal models and tumor cell cultures.

Prostate cancer relies on genetic “switches,” called enhancers, that can turn on tumor-promoting genes. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center have discovered histone H2B N-terminal acetylation (H2BNTac), an essential chemical mark of these enhancers. They further implicate two proteins, p300 and CBP, that add these marks, and along with the androgen receptor, turn on enhancers and promote prostate cancer growth.