Prostate Cell News Volume 2.13 | Apr 8 2011

Heart Drug Cuts Prostate Cancer Risk
Scientists paired laboratory and epidemiologic data to find that men using the cardiac drug, digoxin, had a 24 percent lower risk for prostate cancer. [Press release from Johns Hopkins Medicine discussing online prepublication in Cancer Discovery]

Karmanos Scientists Explore Role of Tumor Suppressor Gene in Inhibiting Prostate Cancer Cell Metastasis
Scientists presented scientific findings that detail the role of a human tumor suppressor gene and its role in inhibiting prostate cancer metastasis to the bone. [Press release from the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit discussing data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s 102nd Annual Meeting 2011]

MicroRNA Variations Found to Be Associated with Earlier Time to Prostate Cancer Diagnosis in African American Men Undergoing Screening
Researchers have found that two novel genetic markers are associated with earlier time to prostate cancer diagnosis among African American men. [Press release from Fox Chase Cancer Center discussing data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s 102nd Annual Meeting 2011]

SRI International Drug Candidate Shows Promise for Treating and Preventing Prostate Cancer
Researchers have identified a drug candidate that shows promise stopping both prostate cancer growth and cancer cell invasion. [Press release from SRI International discussing data presented at the 2011 Prostate Cancer Research Programs Innovative Minds in Prostate Cancer Today Conference]

Researchers Discover Novel Association Between Parkinson’s Disease and Prostate Cancer
Researchers have found compelling evidence that Parkinson’s disease is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer and melanoma, and that this increased cancer risk also extends to close and distant relatives of individuals with Parkinson’s disease. [Press release from the University of Utah Health Care discussing data presented at the American Academy of Neurology 2011 Annual Meeting]

LABORATORY RESEARCH

Differential Transformation Capacity of Src Family Kinases During the Initiation of Prostate Cancer
Scientists show that Src kinase, followed by Fyn kinase and then Lyn kinase, exhibit ranked tumorigenic potential during both paracrine-induced and cell-autonomous–initiated prostate cancer. [Proc Natl Acad Sci USA]

Role for Stromal Heterogeneity in Prostate Tumorigenesis
To test the hypothesis that prostate cancer progression is dependent on the heterogeneous TGF-ß responsive microenvironment, a tissue recombination experiment was designed where the ratio of TGF-ß responsive and nonresponsive stromal cells were varied. [Cancer Res]

Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1 Stimulation of Androgen Receptor Activity Requires β_1A Integrins
Researchers report that β_1A integrins regulate basal levels of IGF-IR, although they are not critical for maintaining cancer cell morphology. [J Cell Physiol]

Resistance to Paclitaxel Increases the Sensitivity to Other Microenvironmental Stresses in Prostate Cancer Cells
To examine the response to microenvironmental conditions, two paclitaxel resistant prostate cancer cell lines (stable and reversible) and one reversible heat resistant cell line were studied. [J Cell Biochem]

Identification of a Novel Prostate Cancer Susceptibility Variant in the KLK3 Gene Transcript
To refine the association between prostate cancer and variants in the rs2735839 loci region, investigators used genotyping data from a two-stage genome-wide association study using samples from the UK and Australia, and the Cancer Genetic Markers of Susceptibility study. [Human Genet]

Characterization of KRAS Rearrangements in Metastatic Prostate Cancer
Using an integrative genomics approach called amplification breakpoint ranking and assembly analysis, scientists nominated KRAS as a gene fusion with the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme UBE2L3 in the DU145 cell line. [Cancer Discov]

CLINICAL RESEARCH

Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Using Differentially Expressed Genes in Stroma
Results indicate that the prostate cancer microenvironment exhibits reproducible changes useful for categorizing the presence of tumor in patients when a prostate sample is derived from near the tumor but does not contain any recognizable tumor. [Cancer Res]

Obesity and Prostate Cancer Aggressiveness Among African and Caucasian Americans in a Population-Based Study
This study evaluated obesity and prostate cancer aggressiveness relationship in a population-based incident prostate cancer study. [Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev]

Methylation of Retinoic Acid Receptor, Beta (RARB) Gene Increases Risk for Prostate Cancer in African-American Men
Researchers conducted a matched case-control study nested in a historical cohort of over 6,000 men with pathologically benign prostate specimens identified between January 1991 and November 2002 with no previous history of prostate cancer. [Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev]

Genome-Wide Association Study Identifies a Genetic Variant Associated with Risk for More Aggressive Prostate Cancer
A genome-wide scan was conducted in 202 prostate cancer cases with a more aggressive phenotype and 100 randomly sampled, age-matched PSA-screened negative controls. [Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev]

A Novel Two-Stage, Transdisciplinary Study Identifies Digoxin as a Possible Drug for Prostate Cancer Treatment
Scientists investigated whether any clinically used drugs might be useful in treating prostate cancer by coupling an efficient, high-throughput laboratory-based screen and a large prospective cohort study. [Cancer Discov]

Walk Away with a RoboSep™ Facebook Photo Contest Winners
STEMCELL Technologies has announced the Grand Prize Winner and Finalists of the “Walk Away With A RoboSep™” Facebook photo contest. [STEMCELL Technologies Inc. Press Release]

Texas Advances Fight Against Cancer CPRIT Announces 22 New Cancer Research and Commercialization Grant Awards
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) awarded $116 million for 22 innovative cancer research and commercialization projects at 16 Texas-based institutions and private companies. [Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas Press Release]

Jan-Åke Gustafsson Leads Team with $5.2M for Prostate Cancer Research
A pair of University of Houston researchers and their colleagues will begin work to develop new methods for treating the most severe form of prostate cancer thanks to $5.2 million in grants recently awarded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. [University of Houston Press Release]

VTT Is Searching for New Drug Targets for Prostate Cancer in the New IMI PREDECT Project
After completion of its 2nd call in 2010, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) has recently announced the launch of 8 new projects. One of these, PREDECT, will develop novel and technically advanced in vivo and in vitro models for breast, prostate and lung cancers. [VTT Press Release]

The John Theurer Cancer Center Is the First Cancer Center in New Jersey to Offer Complete Capabilities of Breakthrough Provenge Treatment
The John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical is the only cancer center in New Jersey where advanced prostate cancer patients can receive a cell collection process and infusion of Provenge® (Sipuleucel-T). [John Theurer Cancer Center Press Release]

NEW 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting
June 3-7, 2011
Chicago, United States

Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the prostate cell community.

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