Molecular determinants of prostate cancer progression

Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in men, particularly among men in their sixth decade and older. PSA screening has led to an increase in the number of men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer at early disease stages. However, by current standards, it is difficult to distinguish prostate cancers that are slow-growing (indolent) from those that are likely to become aggressive and potentially fatal. Indeed, the predicted long-term survival for men with advanced prostate cancer is still very low, which reflects difficulties both in identifying the men that have the most aggressive forms of prostate cancer until it is too late, as well as the fact that there are few treatment options for men with advanced prostate cancer, and none of these are curative. In my laboratory, we are using mouse models to investigate the causes of aggressive prostate cancer and also to test new agents for its effective treatment. Thus, we have made state-of-the-art mouse models, which resemble the most aggressive forms of prostate cancer. We have used these mouse models to investigate how aggressive prostate cancer arises and to evaluate new treatments for advanced prostate cancer. By comparing our findings in the mouse models to human prostate cancer using sophisticated computational tools, we are extrapolating our findings for the design of innovate clinical trials for men with advanced prostate cancer. Our comprehensive approach, which integrates sophisticated models with cross-species comparisons, represents an innovative new discovery approach to identify new targets for treatment of prostate cancer and to predict whether these treatments will work in men with the disease.