Targeting Quiescence in Prostate Cancer
Abstract
A major problem in prostate cancer is finding and eliminating the non-proliferating or quiescent cancer cells. This is because early in prostate cancer, a small number of cancer cells metastasize to other tissues such as the bone, where they can lay dormant for years. Most chemotherapies target actively dividing cancer cells causing primary tumor shrinkage, but leave behind quiescent cancer cells which may seed new, more aggressive and chemo-resistant cancers at a later date. During this first year of funding, we have successfully developed prostate cancer cell lines carrying fluorescent cell cycle reporters that can be used to monitor and isolate cancer cells that are quiescent vs. actively proliferating. With these new tools we verified that prostate cancer cells enter and exit quiescent states in a dynamic manner and we have verified that quiescent prostate cancer cells increase resistance to current chemotherapies. We are in the process of using these cell lines to monitor quiescence in an in vivo xenograft model for prostate cancer dormancy in the bone, to understand where the quiescent cancer cells reside in an effort to understand the signals that may promote quiescence. Our ultimate goal is to compromise the quiescence of cancer cells to test whether reactivating cell division in cancer cells can reduce cancer recurrence and improve treatment outcomes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2016
- Accession Number
- AD1031682
Entities
People
- Laura Buttitta
Organizations
- Board of Regents of the University of Michigan