Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Modify the Response of Prostate Cancer Cells to Androgen and Anti-Androgens in Three-Dimensional Spheroid Culture.

ABSTRACT: Androgen receptor (AR) targeting remains the gold standard treatment for advanced prostate cancer (PCa); however, treatment resistance remains a major clinical problem. To study the therapeutic effects of clinically used anti-androgens we characterized herein a tissue-mimetic three-dimensional (3D) in vitro model whereby PCa cells were cultured alone or with PCa-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). Notably, the ratio of PCa cells to CAFs significantly increased in time in favor of the tumor cells within the spheroids strongly mimicking PCa in vivo. Despite this loss of CAFs, the stromal cells, which were not sensitive to androgen and even stimulated by the anti-androgens, significantly influenced the sensitivity of PCa cells to androgen and to the anti-androgens bicalutamide and enzalutamide. In

SUBMITTER: Eder T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5037737 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature