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Shapeshifters in cancer: How some tumor cells change phenotype to evade therapy

Nature Medicine volume 22, pages 1194–1196 (2016)Cite this article

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Castration, whether surgical or chemical, has been the method of choice for treating advanced or metastatic prostate cancer for the past 70 years. Most often, this is achieved through hormone-depletion therapy, but the ultimate goal is the same: depriving the body of androgens, such as testosterone, that serve as a lifeline for prostate cancer cells. Although the treatment comes with side effects such as impotence, weight gain, loss of muscle mass and depression, men with metastatic prostate cancer find the treatment worthwhile because it works—at least for a time. “Most patients' cancers develop resistance to initial therapies that target the androgen receptor,” says Beltran, an oncologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York who has been working for eight years on mechanisms of resistance to castration in prostate cancer.

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  1. Amanda B Keener is a freelance science writer based in North Carolina.,

    Amanda B Keener

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  1. Amanda B Keener
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Keener, A. Shapeshifters in cancer: How some tumor cells change phenotype to evade therapy. Nat Med 22, 1194–1196 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1116-1194

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1116-1194

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