Cornell Scientists Have Identified a New Incredibly Common Subtype of Prostate Cancer

[cesces]

So very very very interesting

A recent study by a group of researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Weill Cornell Medicine finds that a previously unidentified subtype of hormone-resistant prostate cancer makes up roughly 30% of all cases. The study was recently published in the journal Science. The discovery could make it possible for patients with this subtype of prostate cancer to get targeted therapies.

Only two prostate cancer subtypes had previously been identified: androgen-dependent and neuroendocrine before this recent research, which was led by Yu Chen.

Dr. Chen is an MSK physician-scientist, a member of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program, and an associate professor at Cornell. Because some of the genes that are switched on in the cells are similar to those in stem cells, Dr. Chen’s team has termed the newly identified third subtype of prostate cancer stem cell-like (SCL).

The lack of sufficient high-quality laboratory models for researching this form of cancer may be one reason why the subtype eluded researchers.

“Prostate cancer is uniquely difficult to propagate in the lab,” Dr. Chen explains. “Whereas there are hundreds of cell lines of melanoma and lung cancer, there’s only three or four prostate cancer cell lines that are useful.”

To circumvent this problem, the team turned to a new technology called organoids. The organ-like structures are grown in the lab from pieces of a patient’s tumor. They are a kind of “avatar” of a patient’s tumor and can be used to study its genetics and biochemistry.

27 May 2022, Science.

DOI: 10.1126/science.abe1505

Cornell Scientists Have Identified a New Incredibly Common Subtype of Prostate Cancer

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[Hidden]

Interesting. I hope it leads to treatment advances.

[GreenStreet]

Very interesting. Let’s hope it can lead to more effective treatment

[wagscure259]

I inquired of Dr Chen, my MO @ MSK, and he informed me that the next step is to determine biomarkers to determine the presence of the SCL (and to a lesser extent the WNT) subtypes which are named after their signal pathways. No time table for this next development step was given to my inquiry.

[cesces in reply to wagscure259]

I think the real advance will be to make diagnosis less hit and miss.

Diagnostic technology can move much more quickly regulatorily than treatments.

Longer term the use of organelles will open the door to new advancements.

Probably speeding up the development of new diagnostic tools.