But after the Cell paper was published, Andrea Alimonti, head of molecular oncology at Università della Svizzera italiana, strengthened the androgen link by looking at data on more than 42,000 men with prostate cancer in Veneto in Italy. He and colleagues found that patients on androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT)—drugs that slash levels of testosterone—were only one-quarter as likely to contract COVID-19 as men with prostate cancer not on ADT, they reported in the Annals of Oncology. Men on ADT were also less likely to be hospitalized and to die, although numbers were small.
