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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Prostate Cancer Killed in Animals by Blocking Stat5
Protein
Researchers say this vital protein is now target for
drug therapy
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Age is the most important risk factor for prostate cancer. More
than 65% of cases are diagnosed in men over age 65 - average age
at the time of diagnosis is 70.
NIH SeniorHealth |
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Feb. 28, 2008 By blocking a protein Stat5
researchers effectively killed prostate cancer cells in both laboratory
and experimental animal models. This protein that is key to the cancers
growth and remaining vital is now viewed as a viable target for drug
therapy, according to the study from Thomas Jefferson Universitys
Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia.
The scientists, led by Marja Nevalainen, M.D.,
Ph.D., associate professor of Cancer Biology at Jefferson Medical
College, wanted to prove that Stat5 was indeed necessary for prostate
cancer cells to be viable.
They blocked the proteins expression and function
in several ways, including siRNA inhibition, antisense inhibition and
adenoviral gene delivery of an inhibitory form of Stat5. All of these
techniques killed the prostate cancer cells in cell culture.
The researchers also showed when they transplanted
such cancerous tissue into mice and blocked Stat5 expression, prostate
tumors failed to grow.
This provides the proof of principle that Stat5 is
a therapeutic target protein for prostate cancer, and may be
specifically useful for advanced prostate cancer, where there are no
effective therapies, Dr. Nevalainen says. These results are very
reproducible.
She and her team will report their findings March
1, 2008 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Hormone resistant prostate cancer is especially
dangerous. Men with primary prostate cancer usually have either surgery
or radiation, whereas subsequent disease is frequently treated by
hormone therapy. But if the cancer recurs again, years later, it can be
more aggressive and typically fails to respond to hormone treatment,
often leaving few treatment options.
The findings, Dr. Nevalainen notes, are
particularly relevant because her team worked with urologists to get
human prostate cancer tissue specimens from surgeries, putting them into
cell tissue cultures. That way, she says, the hypothesis could be tested
in real human prostate cancer tissue specimens.
While she and her team continue to work on
establishing Stat5 as a therapeutic target for hormone-resistant
prostate cancer, they are also testing whether or not blocking Stat5 can
make prostate cancer cells more sensitive to other treatments, such as
radiation and chemotherapy.
Another next step in the work, Dr. Nevalainen says,
is to find pharmacological agents that inhibit the protein.
In work reported recently in Cancer Research, Dr.
Nevalainen and her co-workers showed that Stat5 is turned on in nearly
all recurrent prostate cancers that are resistant to hormone therapy. In
addition, the researchers also showed that the convergence of Stat5 and
androgen receptor could be responsible for making such prostate cancers
especially dangerous.
Links to more SeniorJournal.com reports on
Prostate Cancer:
Men Who are Too Fat Run Risk of Undetected Prostate
Cancer
Men with a BMI of 35+ had 11 to 21 percent lower
PSA relative to normal-weight men - Nov. 20, 2007
Prostate Cancer Increases Hip Fracture Risk by Eight
for 'Almost' Senior Citizens
Just being 50+ with prostate cancer increases hip
fracture risk by 4 - Oct. 11, 2007
New Male Sling Helps Prostate Cancer Survivors with
Urinary Incontinence
Losing urine control is frustrating for the
more than 2 million men -
Aug. 29, 2007
Cancer Cells Zapped by Electrical Impulses with Invention by Engineers
Clinical trials come next for test on prostate cancer victims
July 6, 2007
Researchers Say They
Have Found a Better Test for Prostate Cancer?
April 26, 2007
Proteins from Inflammation are 'Smoking Gun' in Spread of Prostate
Cancer
March 19, 2007
Obesity and
Prostate Cancer a Deadly Combination, Study Finds
March 15, 2007
Seniors May Increase Risk of Heart Disease from Prostate Cancer
Treatment
Feb. 26, 2007
Prostate Cancer
Patients Have High Survival Rates with Seed Implants
January 31, 2007
Radiation Therapy
Combo Cures Prostate Cancer Long-Term
January 4, 2007
Lack
of Sons Puts Men at Higher Risk for Prostate Cancer Says New Study
January 3, 2007
Elderly Men
Survive Prostate Cancer 'Significantly' Longer if Treated
December 22, 2006
Octogenarians Not Too Old for Cancer Surgery, Say Mayo Clinic
Researchers
November 27, 2006
Prostate
Cancer Studies Find Benefit to Radiation, No Harm in Testosterone
Replacement in Older Men
November 14, 2006
Prostate
Cancer Cells Killed by Protein Made by the Cancer
November 10, 2006
Researchers
Urge New Approach to Prostate Cancer Screening with Early PSA Base
November 1, 2006
Prostate Cancer Appears Cured in 89 Percent of Men Treated with IMRT
September 27, 2006
PSA of
Prostate Cancer Victims Can Predict How Long They Will Survive
August 25, 2006
Large Study Finds Some Prostate Cancer Patients
Possibly Overtreated
August 15, 2006
Plant-Based Diet with Stress Reduction Slows
Progression of Prostate Cancer
August 15, 2006 - Also in this news report you will find links
to more associations between prostate cancer and nutrition and
supplements.
Prostate Cancer Cells Killed by RNA-Based Drug
August 10, 2006
Men Found with Prostate Cancer Rush to Judgment on
Treatment
June 26, 2006
Potential of Prostate Cancer Spread Detected Early
by New Test
June 21, 2006
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