Prostate Cancer Reprogramming

Drugs that block the actions of androgens (male sex hormones) are commonly used to stop the progression of prostate cancer. But, resistance to such drugs can occur if the cancer reverts to a more stem-like state. Such a reversion – as seen in the prostate cancer cells pictured, which have high levels of two stem cell markers (red and green) – can trigger a more aggressive phase of disease as the cancer no longer depends on androgens and has increased proliferation. Recent research points to inflammatory macrophages – a type of immune cell – being the culprits behind this stem-like reprogramming. The macrophages release factors that promote production of stem cell proteins in prostate cancer cells. Importantly, blocking these signals prevents the reprogramming. Boosting immune activity is the aim of certain modern cancer drugs. However, the new findings suggest such drugs, which could activate macrophages, may not have the desired outcome in prostate cancer.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from work by Kirsi Kainulainen and colleagues
• Institute of Biomedicine, School of Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
• Published in OncoImmunology, August 2024