Androgen Receptor Mediated Growth of Prostate (Cancer)

Recently, these TP/A intermediate stem cells gained attention because they are thought to play an important role in normal prostate growth as well as in neoplastic transformation. Current hypotheses suggest that from the TP/A cell population, the cancer stem cell develops. Hypothetically, the more committed the cancer stem cell is, the more sensitive the tumour might be for androgen ablation, which could explain why some patients are long-term hormone therapy responders, while others are intrinsically androgen independent. In conclusion, typing of the transformed TP/A intermediate stem cells could enable to discriminate long-term hormone responders from non-responders and could help individualisation of prostate cancer therapy in the future.