An integrated computational model of the bone microenvironment in bone-metastatic prostate cancer.

ABSTRACT: Bone metastasis will impact most men with advanced prostate cancer. The vicious cycle of bone degradation and formation driven by metastatic prostate cells in bone yields factors that drive cancer growth. Mechanistic insights into this vicious cycle have suggested new therapeutic opportunities, but complex temporal and cellular interactions in the bone microenvironment make drug development challenging. We have integrated biologic and computational approaches to generate a hybrid cellular automata model of normal bone matrix homeostasis and the prostate cancer-bone microenvironment. The model accurately reproduces the basic multicellular unit bone coupling process, such that introduction of a single prostate cancer cell yields a vicious cycle similar in cellular composition and pathophysio

SUBMITTER: Araujo A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4023121 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature