Therapeutic Programs: Metastatic Prostate Cancer
Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer | Metastic Prostate Cancer | Acute Myeloid Leukemia
In the US, carcinoma of the prostate is the second most common cause of cancer-related death in men following lung cancer. In the US alone, 1 in 6 men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime; 1 in 30 men will die of this disease. It generally occurs in men 50 and older, with the median age at diagnosis of 72. The American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates that 186,300 new cases will be diagnosed in 2008 and 28,600 men will die of the disease. According to autopsy data, histologically-apparent cancer may be found in the prostates of as many as 42% men over 50 years of age who die of other causes. While surgery has proven to be effective in treating patients with localized disease, the survival rates for patients who have metastatic prostate cancer are less than 20%.
Our miRNA expression studies in tumor and normal prostate tissues from more than thirty patients show that the expression levels of more than ten miRNAs are consistently altered in prostate cancer. Many of these miRNAs are further altered in the most tumorigenic cells in prostate tumors, suggesting that the altered expression of the miRNAs contributes to the aggressiveness of the disease. Introducing mimetics of several of the down-regulated miRNAs into cultured prostate cancer cells substantially reduces proliferation and viability of the cancer cells. An in vivo study featuring a xenograft model of prostate cancer revealed that repeated injections of one of our miRNA mimetics eliminates the development of the human prostate tumor in mice.