| ANTIOGENIC PATHWAYS IN HORMONE-RELAPSED
PROSTATE CANCER AS A TARGET FOR FUTURE THERAPY
Mr Rono Mukherjee, J Edwards, M A Underwood, J M S Bartlett University Department of Surgery, Glasgow Royal Infirmary |
In 2001 prostate cancer was responsible for approximately 10,000 deaths in the UK, making it the second most common cause of male cancer related deaths. Treatment for advanced or metastatic prostate cancer has relied on hormone therapy for the past 50 years, however the majority of men eventually recur with a prostate cancer that no longer responds to hormone therapy.
Following the development of this resistance to hormone therapy there are few treatment options available to extend the life of prostate cancer patients. The lack of novel and effective therapies to treat this disease reflects a poor understanding of why this disease develops and more particularly those events, which drive resistance to hormone therapy.
We have investigated if up-regulation of proteins that are known to stimulate tumour growth are involved in the development of prostate cancer resistance to hormone therapy. In doing so we have identified that one protein called “Raf-1” is related to the length of time that it takes for prostate cancer patients to develop resistance to current therapies and have also identified that an other protein called “MAP kinase” is related to how long these patients survive.
By identifying that these proteins are involved in the resistance to hormone therapy we hope that drug companies will begin to develop novel therapies that act on these proteins to prevent them from stimulating tumour growth. This therefore might help prolong the life of prostate cancer patients.
Research summary, 25 January 2004
Project G2002/08.