Chemical castration and antiandrogens induce differential gene expression in prostate cancer

Reference:

S. Lehmusvaara, T. Erkkilä, A. Urbanucci, K. Waltering, J. Seppälä, V. Tuominen, J. Isola, P. Kujala, H. Lähdesmäki, A. Kaipia, T. L. J. Tammela, and T. Visakorpi. Chemical castration and antiandrogens induce differential gene expression in prostate cancer. The Journal of Pathology, 227(3):336–345, 2012.

Abstract:

Endocrine therapy by castration or anti-androgens is the gold standard treatment for advanced prostate cancer. Although it has been used for decades, the molecular consequences of androgen deprivation are incompletely known and biomarkers of its resistance are lacking. In this study, we studied the molecular mechanisms of hormonal therapy by comparing the effect of bicalutamide (anti-androgen), goserelin (GnRH agonist) and no therapy, followed by radical prostatectomy. For this purpose, 28 men were randomly assigned to treatment groups. Freshly frozen specimens were used for gene expression profiling for all known protein-coding genes. An emphin silico Bayesian modelling tool was used to assess cancer-specific gene expression from heterogeneous tissue specimens. The expression of 128 genes was > two-fold reduced by the treatments. Only 16% of the altered genes were common in both treatment groups. Of the 128 genes, only 24 were directly androgen-regulated genes, according to re-analysis of previous data on gene expression, androgen receptor-binding sites and histone modifications in prostate cancer cell line models. The tumours containing emphasizeTMPRSS2-ERG fusion showed higher gene expression of genes related to proliferation compared to the fusion-negative tumours in untreated cases. Interestingly, endocrine therapy reduced the expression of one-half of these genes and thus diminished the differences between the fusion-positive and -negative samples. This study reports the significantly different effects of an anti-androgen and a GnRH agonist on gene expression in prostate cancer cells. em TMPRSS2-ERG fusion seems to bring many proliferation-related genes under androgen regulation.

Suggested BibTeX entry:

@article{Lehmusvaara2012:Mixing,
    author = {S. Lehmusvaara and T. Erkkil{\"a} and A. Urbanucci and K. Waltering and J. Sepp{\"a}l{\"a} and V. Tuominen and J. Isola and P. Kujala and H. L{\"a}hdesm{\"a}ki and A. Kaipia and T. L. J. Tammela and T. Visakorpi},
    journal = {The Journal of Pathology},
    language = {eng},
    number = {3},
    pages = {336-345},
    title = {Chemical castration and antiandrogens induce differential gene expression in prostate cancer},
    volume = {227},
    year = {2012},
}