Androgen deprivation induces phenotypic plasticity and promotes resistance to molecular targeted therapy in a PTEN-deficient mouse model of prostate cancer.

ABSTRACT: Castration-resistant prostate cancer is an incurable heterogeneous disease that is characterized by a complex multistep process involving different cellular and biochemical changes brought on by genetic and epigenetic alterations. These changes lead to the activation or overexpression of key survival pathways that also serve as potential therapeutic targets. Despite promising preclinical results, molecular targeted therapies aimed at such signaling pathways have so far been dismal. In the present study, we used a PTEN-deficient mouse model of prostate cancer to show that plasticity in castration-resistant tumors promotes therapeutic escape. Unlike castration-naïve tumors which depend on androgen receptor and PI3K/AKT signal activation for growth and survival, castration-resistant tumors un

SUBMITTER: De Velasco MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4146423 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature