Male bladder cancer vulnerability could be exploited to design new therapeutic strategies A protein variant common in malignant bladder tumor cells may serve as a new avenue for treating bladder cancer. A multi-institution study led by UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers found that targeting androgen receptors - a type of protein that is crucial for the function of testosterone - may destroy cancer cells. The study, published in the April 28, 2021 issue of Cancer Letters is important because, for the first time, it showed that a newly identified form of the protein is commonly expressed in bladder tumors and depleting this protein caused the cells to die.