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Current therapies for treatment of hormone-dependent cancers, such as prostate and breast cancer, involve dosing with anti-androgenic (SARMs) or anti-estrogenic (SERMs) compounds. Although initially such treatments impede the growth of cancer cells, prolonged treatment usually results in a pronounced shift in responsiveness, such that the SARMs and SERMs lose their beneficial effects and often begin to promote carcinogenesis. An understanding of the mechanisms underlying this switch would allow researchers to identify methods to interfere with the switch so that anti-hormone therapy could be continued with positive results. Understanding the underlying mechanisms would also allow additional therapeutic targets to be identified.
UCSD researchers have discovered the mechanisms underlying the development of resistance to anti-androgen treatment. They have found that cancer cells within prostate tissue interact with a specific cell type, and this interaction initiates a cascade of events leading to the removal of co-repressors from androgenic receptors on the cancer cells. They have also identified specific molecules within this cascade which must interact for resistance to occur.
This technology provides:
- a method to diagnose cancer by identifying the presence of a specific cell type within tissue samples,
- methods to screen for compounds that would interfere with the molecular pathway and
- methods to treat cancers such as breast or prostate by reducing the effectiveness of key molecules within the cascade.
This technology may allow clinicians to continue SARM or SERM therapy without concern for eventual adverse outcomes, and may provide other molecular targets for simultaneous or alternative therapies. In addition, cancerous or pre-cancerous tissue taken via biopsy may be identified with greater confidence.
Case No: SD2005-274
Inquiries To: invent@ucsd.edu
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