TY - JOUR
T1 - It Takes Two to Tango
T2 - The Interplay between Prostate Cancer and Its Microenvironment from an Epigenetic Perspective
AU - Zaalberg, Anniek
AU - Pottendorfer, Elisabeth
AU - Zwart, Wilbert
AU - Bergman, Andries M.
PY - 2024/1/2
Y1 - 2024/1/2
N2 - Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Consequently, there is an urgent unmet need for novel treatment avenues. In addition to somatic genetic alterations, deviations in the epigenetic landscape of cancer cells and their tumor microenvironment (TME) are critical drivers of prostate cancer initiation and progression. Unlike genomic mutations, epigenetic modifications are potentially reversible. Therefore, the inhibition of aberrant epigenetic modifications represents an attractive and exciting novel treatment strategy for castration-resistant prostate cancer patients. Moreover, drugs targeting the epigenome also exhibit synergistic interactions with conventional therapeutics by directly enhancing their anti-tumorigenic properties by “priming” the tumor and tumor microenvironment to increase drug sensitivity. This review summarizes the major epigenetic alterations in prostate cancer and its TME, and their involvement in prostate tumorigenesis, and discusses the impact of epigenome-targeted therapies.
AB - Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. Consequently, there is an urgent unmet need for novel treatment avenues. In addition to somatic genetic alterations, deviations in the epigenetic landscape of cancer cells and their tumor microenvironment (TME) are critical drivers of prostate cancer initiation and progression. Unlike genomic mutations, epigenetic modifications are potentially reversible. Therefore, the inhibition of aberrant epigenetic modifications represents an attractive and exciting novel treatment strategy for castration-resistant prostate cancer patients. Moreover, drugs targeting the epigenome also exhibit synergistic interactions with conventional therapeutics by directly enhancing their anti-tumorigenic properties by “priming” the tumor and tumor microenvironment to increase drug sensitivity. This review summarizes the major epigenetic alterations in prostate cancer and its TME, and their involvement in prostate tumorigenesis, and discusses the impact of epigenome-targeted therapies.
KW - androgen receptor targeted therapy
KW - epigenetics
KW - immunotherapy
KW - prostate cancer
KW - tumor microenvironment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85183382437&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/cancers16020294
DO - 10.3390/cancers16020294
M3 - Review article
C2 - 38254784
AN - SCOPUS:85183382437
SN - 2072-6694
VL - 16
JO - Cancers
JF - Cancers
IS - 2
M1 - 294
ER -
