Davies A, Nouruzi S, Ganguli D, Namekawa T, Thaper D, Linder S, Karaoğlanoğlu F, Omur ME, Kim S, Kobelev M, Kumar S, Sivak O, Bostock C, Bishop J, Hoogstraat M, Talal A, Stelloo S, van der Poel H, Bergman AM, Ahmed M, Fazli L, Huang H, Tilley W, Goodrich D, Feng FY, Gleave M, He HH, Hach F, Zwart W, Beltran H, Selth L, Zoubeidi A. An androgen receptor switch underlies lineage infidelity in treatment-resistant prostate cancer. Nat Cell Biol. 2021 Sep;23(9):1023-1034. doi: 10.1038/s41556-021-00743-5. Epub 2021 Sep 6.PMID: 34489572

Prostate tumours are made up of epithelial cells, which are a type of cell that line the surfaces of your body. This paper presents important new research describing how prostate cancer epithelial cells can transition to a different cell type, called a neuroendocrine cell, in response to hormonal therapies. This research was a collaboration across Canadian, Netherlands, US and Australian-based research cgroups.

These findings are important because patients who develop neuroendocrine prostate tumours after being treated with hormonal therapies have extremely poor outcomes. Moreover, the study not only determines how neuroendocrine prostate tumours can develop but also identifies a therapy that can be used to revert them back to a more epithelial, and much less aggressive, state.