Testosterone therapy is linked to longer survival in aggressive brain tumors
Original title: Protective effects of testosterone replacement therapy on brain tumor outcomes: the Mayo Clinic Experience
How far along is this research?
This is a preprint. Other scientists have not checked it yet, so treat it as an early signal rather than an answer.
This was a look back at patient records, not a trial that tested the treatment.
The short version
Patients who were taking testosterone lived longer, but this study cannot prove testosterone was the reason.
What was studied. Doctors at Mayo Clinic looked back at records of adults with glioblastoma: The fastest-growing type of glioma (grade 4). Treatment usually starts soon after diagnosis: surgery first, then radiation and chemotherapy. See the glossary and with cancer that had spread to the brain from somewhere else. They compared people who had a testosterone prescription around the time of diagnosis to people who did not.
What they found. People taking testosterone lived longer in both groups. In the group whose cancer had spread to the brain, the gain was about 3.22 months over the two years the researchers tracked. In the glioblastoma: The fastest-growing type of glioma (grade 4). Treatment usually starts soon after diagnosis: surgery first, then radiation and chemotherapy. See the glossary group, the gain was about 5.81 months over the same two years. The difference held up after the researchers matched patients with similar health backgrounds.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: Hormones may matter more in brain tumor care than doctors have realized. If you already take testosterone for a medical reason, this is a reason to keep talking with your care team about it. The researchers say the next step is proper trials that test this on purpose.
What it doesn't mean: This is not a treatment you can ask for. It was a look back at old medical records, not a trial. That kind of study can show two things happen together, but it cannot show that one caused the other. The people taking testosterone may have been healthier to begin with in ways the records did not capture. The authors call their own findings a starting point for future studies. This is not a cure, and it is not a reason to start testosterone on your own.
Source: medRxiv (preprint), August 10, 2026 · Read the original
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