Sex, Drugs, and Cancer Lit Review: Testosterone and Brain Cancers

In honor of Jenny, who was taken too soon.

Testosterone Promotes Glioblastoma Cell Proliferation, Migration, and Invasion Through Androgen Receptor Activation (2019)

We observed that T increased the number of U87, U251, and D54 cells derived from human GBM due to an increase in cell proliferation. This induction was blocked with flutamide, an antagonist of AR. T also induced migration and invasion of GBM cells that flutamide partially blocked. These data suggest that T through AR contributes to the progression of GBM by promoting proliferation, migration, and invasion.

(I believe this may have been the type of cancer that ended the life of Magdalen Berns. It was certainly a brain tumor based on her self-reports. The mnemonic we learned in school for Glioblastoma Multiforme was Goodbye My Friend)

The occurrence of benign brain tumours in transgender individuals during cross-sex hormone treatment (2018)

Based on our results we conclude that cross-sex hormone treatment is associated with a higher risk of meningiomas and prolactinomas in transwomen, which may be linked to cyproterone acetate usage, and somatotrophinomas in transmen.

(No space-occupying mass in the brain is truly benign. Your skull is a fixed volume. Your brain controls your body. Even if it is “benign cancer” i.e., not metastatic, not rapidly growing, it can still ruin your life and it can still kill you depending on their location).

This one has already replicated:

Widely-used hormone drug associated with increased risk of benign brain tumor at high doses (2022)

Date: February 4, 2022 Source:

University of Bristol Summary: High doses of a widely-used drug used in the hormonal treatment of conditions such as excessive hair growth, early puberty, prostate cancer, are linked to an increased risk of meningioma -- the most common type of benign brain tumor, finds a new study of over 8-million patients. Typically slow-growing, meningiomas are benign tumours, which are often revealed incidentally by imaging but can cause significant disability due to compressing or squeezing the adjacent brain, nerves and vessels and pressure effects within a fixed cranial vault.

(If you have not worked closely with brain tumors, brain injuries, and neurodegenerative diseases, believe me when I say you do NOT know how godawful your moment-to-moment existence can get).

Impact of sex in the prevalence and progression of glioblastomas: the role of gonadal steroid hormones (2021)

Research in the field of endocrinology and cancer suggests that gonadal steroid hormones play an important role in the progression and prevalence of glioblastomas…Gonadal steroid hormones can stimulate the progression of glioblastomas through the increase in proliferation, migration, and invasion. However, the effects mentioned above depend on the concentrations of these hormones and the receptor involved in hormone actions. Estradiol and progesterone can exert promoter or protective effects while the role of testosterone has been always associated to glioblastomas progression.

Okay, that’s about as much engagement with this topic I can tolerate for one night. I don’t want to throw my cat at my other cat and I can feel myself trending in that direction. All this research is from the last 5 years. All this research is predictable in terms of outcome if you know anything about how these drugs work in the body and how cancer works. And pediatric endocrinologists like Dr. Tandy Aye know more than I do about how carcinogenic these poisons are. I am not learning about cancer for the first time this week. I am not surprised by what I am finding. It’s just a matter how how much I can stomach before I want to go avenge their uncounted victims whose cancer deaths were likely recorded as “loss to follow-up” so they could keep selling these hormonal cigarettes to children.