Inhibiting 2 Pathways Rather Than 1 Enhances Anti-Tumor Effects

Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Breast Cancer;  Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 24 Aug 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Two independent research groups have found that simultaneous inhibition of two signaling pathways resulted in substantially enhanced antitumor effects in mouse models of prostate and breast cancer. In an accompany commentary, Steven Grant, at Virginia Commonwealth University Health Science Center, Richmond, discusses the clinical importance of these studies and highlights some of the questions that still need to be answered.

In the first study, Pier Paolo Pandolfi and colleagues, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, report that tumor samples from patients with biopsy-accessible solid tumors of advanced disease treated with a drug that inhibits the mTOR signaling pathway showed increased activation of the MAPK signaling pathway. Similar results were observed in a mouse model of prostate cancer following treatment with the same drug. As inhibition of the MAPK signaling pathway enhanced the antitumoral effects of inhibition of the mTOR signaling pathway in mice transplanted with a human breast cancer cell line, the authors suggest that a combination therapy using drugs that target each pathway might improve the treatment of human cancers.

In the second study, Cory Abate-Shen and colleagues, at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, and the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Piscataway, show that simultaneous inhibition of the mTOR and MAPK signaling pathways inhibited the in vitro growth of prostate cancer cell lines and the in vivo growth of prostate tumors in a mouse model of prostate cancer. This was particularly true in a model of highly aggressive and frequently lethal forms of the disease, which do not respond to hormone deprivation therapy, leading the authors to suggest that this combination therapy might be particularly useful for treating patients with advanced, hormone-refractory prostate cancer.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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TITLE: Inhibition of mTORC1 leads to MAPK pathway activation through a PI3K-dependent feedback loop in human cancer

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Pier Paolo Pandolfi
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=34739

RELATED MANUSCRIPT

TITLE: Targeting AKT/mTOR and ERK MAPK signaling inhibits hormone-refractory prostate cancer in a preclinical mouse model

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Cory Abate-Shen
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, USA.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=34764

ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY

TITLE: Cotargeting survival signaling pathways in cancer

AUTHOR CONTACT:
Steven Grant
Virginia Commonwealth University Health Science Center, Richmond, Virginia, USA.

View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=36898

Source: Karen Honey
Journal of Clinical Investigation