New Prostate Cancer Subtypes Open Door To Treatment Options

Weill Cornell Medicine researchers have discovered two new kinds of prostate cancer. These novel types of cancer are resistant to traditional treatments, but identifying and studying them could lead to new therapies, Michael Irving reported for New Atlas.

Photo Insert: The researchers discovered four subtypes of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in the new study.

Most prostate cancers grow slowly, and there are several therapeutic options available. Hormone therapy, which lowers levels of male hormones like testosterone, which cancer cells rely on to grow, is sometimes used.

Some tumors, however, can develop resistance to this treatment, making it more lethal and difficult to treat. The findings were reported in the scientific journal Science.

The researchers discovered four subtypes of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) in the new study, two of which had never been identified before. They termed them SCL and WNT after the hyperactive signaling pathways in each tumor type. The researchers started by looking at 40 tumor samples that had been developed as organoids from tumor cells taken from patients.

They examined the cells' DNA and RNA, as well as their chromatin, which is a mix of DNA and proteins that neatly bundles chromosomes in a cell.

Because differences in chromatin might make genes more or less available for expression, which can lead to various types of cancer, the scientists discovered the four types of CRPC by studying chromatin profiles.

The scientists then sequenced the RNA of tumors from 366 patients to determine the prevalence of each kind within resistant prostate cancer cases. The SCL type accounted for 22 to 30% of instances, while WNT was rarer, accounting for only five to seven percent.

The team was able to figure out what was wrong with SCL prostate tumors by digging deeper. FOSL1, TEAD, YAP, and TAZ are a group of proteins that become overactive, altering chromatin accessibility and driving tumor growth.

Following the discovery of which proteins are involved, existing compounds that are known to impact them were demonstrated to limit the growth of SCL cancer cells, indicating the possibility of new treatments.

“Once you can identify which type of tumor patients have, that’s very powerful information,” said Dr. Etka Khurana, co-senior author of the study. “For patients that fall into this SCL group, we have found very promising drug targets, which future studies will work to validate.”

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic