Androgen metabolism by human prostatic tumours in organ culture.

Metabolism of testosterone and 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone were investigated in benign and malignant human prostatic tumours maintained for 48 hr in organ culture. When tritiated testosterone was used as substrate there were significant differences between the metabolic pathways of the two types of tumour. Whilst the benign tumour had a predominantly reductive pathway leading to the formation of 5 alpha-reduced metabolites of testosterone, an oxidative pathway producing androstenedione was found to be the major pathway operative in the intermediate and poorly differentiated malignant specimens studied. In contrast to these differences observed in the metabolic pathway of testosterone when tritiated 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone was used as substrate, no significant differences in the pattern of radiometabolites were observed.