The study results, published in Molecular Cancer, thus provide a new approach for the treatment of prostate tumors, especially in a phase where current methods fail.

The research team, led by Olaf Merkel, Brigitte Hantusch and Lukas Kenner (all from the Clinical Department of Pathology at MedUni Vienna) and first author Aleksandra Fesiuk (Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy at MedUni Vienna), focused on the role of the thyroid hormone receptor TRβ (thyroid hormone receptor beta) in tumor development.

In laboratory experiments, activation of the thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3) led to a sharp increase in prostate cancer cells. However, when TRβ was inhibited with NH-3, an active substance currently used only in research for the targeted blocking of TRβ, the growth of cancer cells decreased significantly.