Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, estimated to account for more than 1 million cases and more than 350 000 annual deaths.1 Although metastatic prostate cancer remains a lethal malignant neoplasm, the therapeutic landscape has changed drastically during the last decade, most notably with the development of highly potent, orally bioavailable, hormonal therapies targeting the androgen receptor pathway. The first of this class, and the most commonly used, is abiraterone acetate, a selective irreversible inhibitor of CYP17A1, which metabolizes multiple steroid substrates and is responsible for the production of multiple androgens. Abiraterone is approved for use in the US across the spectrum of metastatic prostate cancer, including in combination with androgen deprivation therapy for castration-sensitive disease and in castration-resistant disease before or following docetaxel chemotherapy. As such, many if not most patients with metastatic prostate cancer will be offered treatment with abiraterone at some point in their disease course.