Testosterone in Treating Patients With Progressive Prostate Cancer That No Longer Responds to Hormone Therapy

You may be eligible if

• DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
• Histologically confirmed androgen independent metastatic prostate cancer
• Progressive disease manifested by either:
• * New osseous lesions by bone scan or a greater than 25% increase in bidimensionally measurable soft tissue disease or the appearance of new sites of disease by MRI or CT scan OR
• * Minimum of 3 rising PSA values from baseline that are obtained 1 week or more apart, or 2 rising PSA values more than 1 month apart, where the percentage increase over the range of values is at least 25%
• Castrate state by orchiectomy or gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues for minimum of 1 year
• * Testosterone no greater than 30 ng/mL
• Measurable disease
• Metastatic disease by bone scan, MRI, or CT scan
• Rising PSA values
• If receiving antiandrogen therapy, must have shown progressive disease off treatment
• No active CNS or epidural tumor
• PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
• Age:
• 18 and over
• Performance status:
• Karnofsky 60-100%
• Life expectancy:
• Not specified
• Hematopoietic:
• WBC at least 3,500/mm\^3
• Platelet count greater than 100,000/mm\^3
• Hepatic:
• Bilirubin less than 2.0 mg/dL
• SGOT less than 3 times upper limit of normal
• PTT less than 14 seconds
• Renal:
• Creatinine less than 2.0 mg/dL OR
• Creatinine clearance greater than 60 mL/min
• Cardiovascular:
• No New York Heart Association class III or IV cardiac disease
• Pulmonary:
• No severe debilitating pulmonary disease
• Other:
• No infection requiring IV antibiotics
• No other severe medical problems that would increase risk for toxicity
• PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
• Biologic therapy:
• Recovered from prior biologic therapy
• No concurrent immunotherapy
• Chemotherapy:
• Recovered from prior chemotherapy
• No concurrent chemotherapy
• Endocrine therapy:
• See Disease Characteristics
• If no prior orchiectomy, must continue on gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs to maintain castrate levels of testosterone
• No concurrent finasteride
• No other concurrent hormonal therapy
• Radiotherapy:
• Recovered from prior radiotherapy
• No concurrent radiotherapy to an indicator lesion
• Surgery:
• See Disease Characteristics
• Recovered from prior surgery
• No concurrent surgery on only measurable lesion
• Other:
• At least 4 weeks since other prior investigational anticancer drugs and recovered
• No other concurrent investigational anticancer agents