Davis Joanne N, Day Mark L
Department of Urology, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor 48109-0944, USA.
Mol Biotechnol. 2002 Oct;22(2):129-38. doi: 10.1385/MB:22:2:129.
Despite the intense research focused on prostate cancer, it remains the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in men over 40-yr-of-age, and the second most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths in men in the United States (1). In 1990, the National Cancer Institute convened 50 experts and leaders from various disciplines in the prostate cancer field to discuss research directions that would help elucidate the molecular basis of this disease and reduce the incidence and mortality of prostate cancer (2). Critical issues identified at this meeting included the role of androgens and the regulation of cell cycle in prostate tumorigenesis and its progression to androgen-independence. Hormones and cell cycle clearly play important roles in normal and cancerous prostate physiology; however, little information has emerged that clearly delineates their function in the etiology of prostate cancer. Some of the mutational events that occur during prostate tumorigenesis and its progression to androgen-independence involve alterations to normal growth, developmental and apoptotic programs regulated by androgen, and the cell cycle. As such, the delineation of events by which prostate cancer cells circumvent these regulatory mechanisms will be central to our understanding of prostate tumorigenesis and to the development of new modalities to treat this disease. This article is then intended to summarize the functional convergence of androgen regulation and cell cycle in normal prostate physiology and prostate tumorigenesis.
尽管针对前列腺癌的研究十分密集，但它仍是40岁以上男性中最常被诊断出的恶性肿瘤，也是美国男性癌症相关死亡的第二大常见原因（1）。1990年，美国国立癌症研究所召集了前列腺癌领域各学科的50位专家和带头人，讨论有助于阐明该疾病分子基础并降低前列腺癌发病率和死亡率的研究方向（2）。此次会议确定的关键问题包括雄激素的作用以及细胞周期调控在前列腺肿瘤发生及其向雄激素非依赖性发展过程中的作用。激素和细胞周期在正常和癌性前列腺生理学中显然起着重要作用；然而，几乎没有出现能清晰界定它们在前列腺癌病因中作用的信息。前列腺肿瘤发生及其向雄激素非依赖性发展过程中发生的一些突变事件涉及雄激素和细胞周期所调控的正常生长、发育和凋亡程序的改变。因此，明确前列腺癌细胞规避这些调控机制的过程对于我们理解前列腺肿瘤发生以及开发治疗该疾病的新方法至关重要。本文旨在总结雄激素调控与细胞周期在正常前列腺生理学和前列腺肿瘤发生中的功能交汇。
