 In 1941 Huggins treated prostate cancer patients by androgen ablation with either castration or estrogen therapy; the beneficial effect of androgen ablation on metastatic prostate cancer was realised, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1966.It became evident that androgen ablation alone was insuffient to cure patients with advanced prostate cancer.In the late 1960s, the androgen receptor (AR) was discovered and characterized.