Men who die of prostate cancer are those that become resistant to therapy

When one avenue driving its growth is blocked by drugs targeting that path, the malignancy often creates a detour, finding an alternative route to get around the roadblock.
Ths is the conclusion of a new study at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Researchers found that when a common type of prostate cancer was treated with conventional hormone ablation therapy blocking androgen production or androgen receptor (AR) function - which drives growth of the tumor - the cancer was able to adapt and compensate by activating a survival cell signaling pathway, effectively circumventing the roadblock put up by this treatment.

The study has important implications for those prostate patients with late stage disease, who often become resistant to hormone ablation therapy, said David J. Mulholland, a postdoctoral fellow in Wu’s lab and first author of the study. Men who die of prostate cancer are those that become resistant to therapy and, as a consequence, their disease can spread or metastasize to other places, most often the bones.