Prostate Cancer Standard-Of-Care Treatment Can Accelerate Metastatic Tumor Growth

Epithelial—Mesenchymal Transition in the Prostate Caused by Androgen Deprivation

Deprivation of androgen is currently a well-known therapy for prostate cancer in the United States.  Though this process effectively fights androgen-dependent disease, lack of androgen often results in an androgen-independent mechanism that could lead to worst cases.

Such type of cancer, specifically castration-resistant prostate cancer, poses a major challenge in the field of medicine. Furthermore, the processes in this castration resistance mechanism are not yet well fully understood.  Epithelial—mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a major developmental process and has been identified as the major factor in metastatic tumor growth and resistance to therapeutic processes recently.  But, to date, the factors that may contribute to EMT in human cancers are still unclear.

An experiment showed that both the normal mouse prostate tissue and human LuCaP35 prostate tumor tissue display an EMT.  It further shows an increased stem cell-like features in prostate tumors from patients given androgen-deprivation therapy.

To sum it all, this experiment shows for the first time that androgen deprivation induces ENT either in normal prostate or in prostate cancer.  This clinically reveals an important consequence of a standard-of-care treatment for prostate cancer.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday January 25 2012, 5:11 AM EST. Ref: Yuting Sun et al. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0