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The Cutting Edge

Aggressive Prostate and Lung Cancers Are Driven by Common Mechanisms

UCLA researchers have discovered a common process in the development of late-stage, small cell cancers of the prostate and lung. These shared molecular mechanisms could lead to the development of drugs to treat not just prostate and lung cancers, but also small cell cancers of almost any organ.

small cell neuroendocrine prostate cancer

A microscopic image of small cell neuroendocrine prostate cancer, with cancer cells expressing diagnostic prostate cancer markers in green and red. Blue areas indicate cell nuclei. Photo: Courtesy of Drs. Jung Wook Park and Owen Witte

The key finding: Prostate and lung cells have very different patterns of gene expression when they are healthy but have almost identical patterns when they transform into small cell cancers. The research suggests that different types of small cell tumors evolve similarly, even when they come from different organs.

Cancers that become resistant to treatment often develop into small cell cancers — also known as small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas, or SCNCs — which generally have extremely poor prognoses. Certain cancers can evade treatment in part by changing cell types — from aggressive adenocarcinoma to small cell carcinoma, for example.

Previous research hinted that small cell cancers from different organs may be driven by common mechanisms, but the UCLA study is the first to clearly describe the steps in their evolution. “Small cell cancers of the lung, prostate, bladder and other tissues were long thought to be similar in name alone, and they were treated by oncologists as different entities,” says Owen Witte, MD, founding director of the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research and professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics. “Over the past few years, though, researchers have increasingly begun to realize that there are similarities in the cancers, and that’s what our work confirms.”

Jung Wook Park, PhD, the study’s first author, and UCLA collaborators explored the potential parallels between the cancer types by transplanting human prostate cells with five genes, known collectively as PARCB, into mice. When those cells grew in the mice, they displayed unique features of human SCNCs.

The team also identified that for SCNCs to develop in the prostate, two tumor suppressor genes, TP53 and RB1, which are known for protecting normal cells from transforming into cancer cells, had to be simultaneously inactivated when PARCB was introduced. Additional tests confirmed striking similarities between the PARCB–SCNCs cells and small cell prostate cancer cells from humans. In particular, RNA expression and the turning on and off of certain genes were nearly identical.

The team also looked at large databases of gene expression to compare the patterns of gene expression in their PARCB-SCNC cells to cancers of other organs. They found that the pattern of gene expression in PARCB-SCNC cells was extremely similar to those of prostate and lung small cell cancers. Next, they tested whether PARCB genes could alter healthy cells from human lungs into small cell lung cancers, and the scientists found that they could. The team now is working on mapping which genes control the entire cascade of events that underlies the transition to small cell cancer.

“Reprogramming Normal Human Epithelial Tissues to a Common, Lethal Neuroendocrine Cancer Lineage,” Science, October 5, 2018


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Winter 2019

Winter 2019
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IN THIS ISSUE
  • Forever Linked
  • UCLA Team Helps Create Facility for Ugandan Women Who Suffer Childbirth Injuries
  • Aggressive Prostate and Lung Cancers Are Driven by Common Mechanisms
  • Behavioral Risk Factors for Depression Vary with Age
  • UCLA Scientists Use Stem Cells to Study Genetics of Germ Cell Tumors
  • Promising Drug Strategy Could Slow Neurodegeneration
  • Two-cells-in-one Combo Could Be Platform to Bolster Leukemia Treatment
  • Cancer Treatments May Be Linked to Decline in Cognitive Performance
  • Beyond the Ivory Tower
  • Parasite Sleuth: Elissa Hallem, PhD
  • Heartbreak. And Hope
  • The Littlest Wookiee
  • The Long Road to Effectively Treat CF
  • Eat, Drink and Be Wary
  • The Doctor & the Refugee
  • Awards & Honors
  • In Memoriam
  • The Big Weekend
  • In Memoriam
  • Innovation and Courage Honored at UCLA Visionary Ball
  • $10 Million Gift Advances Programs in Women’s Health
  • Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
  • UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital Hosts 19th Annual Party on the Pier
  • UCLA Operation Mend Marches Forward
  • UCLA Health Sound Body Sound Mind Celebrates 20 Years of Supporting School Fitness Programs
  • UCLA-Weizmann Institute Collaboration Advances Depression Research
  • UCLA Urology Honors Two Physicians
  • Dr. Anthony C. Arnold Named Inaugural Chair in Neurodegenerative Diseases
  • Gifts
  • A Drop in the Bucket
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