Early Detection of Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer by Assessing Interactions Between Circulating Tumor Cells and Accompanying Immune Cells
Abstract
Prostate cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men. In majority of "castration sensitive" patients proliferation of cancer cells depends on supply of androgen and can be attenuated by the androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). Unfortunately, many patients develop "castration resistance" (CR), when the tumor growth and metastatic spread continue despite ADT. For effective second-line therapy the resistance needs to be detected early. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that can be isolated from the standard blood sample are considered "seeds of metastasis". We postulate that mechanical and immunochemical profiling of CTCs and accompanying immune cells provide clues about CTCs aggressiveness and the risk of Cr. Our specific aims call for determining the role of (1) epithelial-mesenchymal_transition (EMT) and (2) interactions with circulating macrophages in survival-promoting mechanical fitness of CTCs. Combing the cell culture studies with profiling of CTCs will lead to (3) construction of predictive model for early CR detection. In this reporting period we continued accrual of patients, unfortunately temporarily halted by the COVID-19 Pandemic measures. The accrual and sample collection fully resumed this summer. We performed cell culture experiments and analyzed the data in accordance with the statement of work, with some tasks completed ahead of schedule. We performed initial analyzes of cumulative patients data. The outcome includes a manuscript submitted.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1111609
Entities
People
- Maria Gaczyńska
- Pawel A. Osmulski
- Tim H. Huang
Organizations
- University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio