Research published in the journal EMBO Reports and summarised in a recent article from Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia claims that up to 90% of men with treatment-resistant prostate cancer can develop cancer in their bones, from which most of these men will die. While present treatments can improve quality of life and delay skeletal symptoms, they have not increased overall survival.
The article also claims that it is estimated that in over half of men diagnosed with prostate cancer, cancer cells can be found silently residing in their bones in a sleep like state known as ‘dormancy’.
Recent research conducted at the Peter Mac Centre in collaboration with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, La Trobe University and the University of Melbourne shows that the immune system could be instrumental in offering an effective treatment approach for prostate cancer bone metastases. Prostate cancer cells that can ‘hide’ themselves away in bone were the focus of the research. The key being to increase immune cell recognition of prostate cancer in the bone and to arm the immune system to recognise these cancer cells should they ‘come out of hiding and re-emerge in the future’.
The research has identified how prostate cancer cells persist in bone by specifically blocking immune proteins that reduce their visibility to the immune system and shows that the immune system could be instrumental in offering n effective treatment approach for prostate cancer bone metastases.
The article with a link to the research document can be found at:
