Most prostate cancers grow very slowly, and there are a range of treatment options available. In some cases, hormone therapy will be used, which will reduce the level of male hormones, such as testosterone, which are the growth of cancer cells. However, some tumors become resistant to this treatment and become more deadly and difficult to deal with.
In the new study, the researchers found that there are four subtypes of castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC), including two subtypes that have never been found before. They named them SCL and Wnt after the signaling pathways that became hyperactive in each tumor type.
The team first analyzed 40 tumor samples, which were organs cultivated from tumor cells collected from patients. They studied the DNA and RNA of cells, as well as their chromatin, a mixture of DNA and proteins that tightly encloses chromosomes in cells. Chromatin differences can make genes more or less expressed, which may lead to some types of cancer. Therefore, by analyzing chromatin maps, the research team identified four types of CRPC.
Next, the scientists sequenced the tumor RNA of 366 patients to calculate the proportion of each type in resistant prostate cancer cases. They found that SCL accounted for 22 to 30 percent of cases, while Wnt was more rare, accounting for only 5 to 7 percent.
After in-depth study, the research team was able to determine the problem of SCL type prostate cancer. A series of proteins -- fosl1, tead, yap and TAZ -- become overactive, thus changing the accessibility of chromatin and promoting tumor growth. After clarifying which proteins are involved, the existing molecules known to affect them were later proved to be able to slow down the growth of SCL cancer cells, indicating that new treatments are possible.
Dr ETKA Khurana, co-author of the study, said: "once you can determine the tumor type of patients, this is very powerful information. For patients belonging to this SCL group, we have found very promising drug targets, and future research will be devoted to verifying these targets."
The study was published in Science 》In magazines.