Prostate-derived growth factors for bone cells: implications for bone physiology and pathophysiology: review.

Metastatic prostatic cancer is virtually unique in its tendency to induce osteoblastic lesions. Several theories have been proposed for the explanation of this phenomenon, among them, the hypothesis of growth substances secreted locally by the metastatic prostatic cancer cells. Thus the present review summarizes today's stage of knowledge on bone cell physiology and presents the results of several studies which have tested the mitogenic capacity of extracts from prostatic cancer tissues on various isolated cell culture systems.