tumors showing very strong reactivity for treatment of prostate cancer the therapeutic compositions of the invention are suitably administered after initial of androgen withdrawal initiation of androgen withdrawal may be accomplished via surgical removal of both testicles or medical drug induced suppression of testosterone castration which is currently indicated for treatment of prostate cancer medical castration can be achieved by various regimens including lhrh agents or antiandrogens gleave et al cmaj 160 225 232 1999 intermittent therapy in which reversible androgen withdrawal is effected is described in gleave et al eur urol 34 supp 3 37 41 1998 the inhibition of hsp 27 expression may be transient and for treatment of prostate cancer ideally should occur coincident with androgen withdrawal in humans this means that inhibition of expression should be effective starting within a day or two of androgen withdrawal before or after and extending for about 3 to 6 months this may require multiple doses to accomplish it will be appreciated however that the period of time may be more prolonged starting before castration and expending for substantial time afterwards without departing from the scope of the invention the method for treating cancer including prostate cancer in accordance with the invention may further include administration of chemotherapy agents and or additional antisense oligonucleotides directed at different targets examples of other therapy agents include without limitation taxanes paclitaxel or docetaxel mitoxanthrone and antisense directed to bcl 2 bcl xl or c myc inhibition of hsp27 using antisense or rnai can be used to enhance the activity of like taxanes or gemcitabine as well as biologic agents for the treatment of prostate breast lung urothelial and other cancers the invention will now be further described with respect to.