Research progress on neuroendocrine prostate cancer induced by androgen depriva-tion therapy / 中国肿瘤临床

ABSTRACT

Patients with metastatic prostate cancer are typically managed with androgen deprivation therapy. Most patients initially respond to treatment, but many eventually develop castration-resistant prostate cancer. Neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is a highly aggressive subtype of castration-resistant prostate cancer, which often results from neuroendocrine differentiation of prostate cancer cells. NEPC has a dismal outcome with an average survival of less than 1 year and exhibits less response to radiochemotherapy. At least 25%of patients with lethal castration-resistant prostate cancer are predicted to eventually develop this type of highly-aggres-sive NEPC. However, research on the molecular mechanism of NEPC is limited;thus, further studies are needed to explore the develop-ment and application of anticancer drugs for NEPC.