Novel Experimental Therapeutic Approaches for Prostate Cancer

Early detection and aggressive treatment of early prostate cancer resulted in a significant decline of overall mortality rates. However, the treatment of advanced tumor stages still represents a crucial problem. Knowledge on molecular alterations taking place in the development and progression of prostate cancer increased rapidly in the past few years, thanks also to the use of novel techniques that enabled to perform broad gene expression profiling of tumors. This better understanding of the molecular biology of prostate cancer led to the establishment of novel strategies to delay/inhibit tumor progression. This review summarizes some recent therapeutic approaches including the specific blockade of androgen receptor signaling as well as of other intracellular signal transduction pathways such as the EGF signaling pathway, some interesting strategies that aim to promote apoptosis or differentiation, or to inhibit proliferation of prostate tumor cells and some novel studies on drugs which interfere with the vasculature of prostate tumors in order to block their nutritional supply.