Drugs used to treat prostate cancer in men may also be useful for difficult to treat breast cancers in some women, say researchers.
Hormone treatments such as tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors are ineffective against up to 30% of breast cancers.
The study, in The EMBO Journal, suggests some of these tumours may respond to drugs for male cancers.
Cancer Research UK said the findings were a "great surprise".
Hormones can switch on genes which lead to cells dividing uncontrollably and developing into tumours.
In women, breast cancers can be driven by the female sex hormone oestrogen. In men, prostate cancer can be driven by male sex hormones - androgens.
Breakthroughs have been made in treatments for breast cancer by developing drugs which interfere with the oestrogen's action, halting the tumour's progress.
However, tumours which are not driven by the hormone have been harder to treat.
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