Because prostate cancer develops under the influence of androgenic steroids, androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) has been used for the last 60 years as a standard of care for patients diagnosed with metastatic disease or disease that recurs after local treatment. Unfortunately, ADT is only effective for a brief period before patiens relapse with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and die from their disease. Taxanes are the only chemotherapies shown to prolong survival for patients with metastatic CRPC, and both docetaxel and cabazitaxel are FDA approved for this indication. Despite the initial efficacy of taxanes in treating CRPC, patients ultimately fail due to the development of drug resistance. Resistance to taxane therapy has been attributed to several cellular mechanisms such as decreased cellular taxane accumulation, defects in apoptotic pathways by taxane induced activation of anti-stress and anti-apoptotic mechanisms that promote survival or alterations in microtubule dynamics. Based on preliminary results we have shown that ERG over-expression, which occurs in roughly 50% of prostate cancer patients, is associated with taxane resistance in pre-clinical models. However, the precise mechanism of ERG-induced taxane resistance to taxanes remains to be characterized. Understanding ERG-induced taxane resistance is essential for developing strategies to circumvent this resistance. We hypothesize that ERG plays a critical role in taxane resistance through at least two mechanisms: 1) alteration of microtubule dynamics and 2) direct regulation of anti-stress/apoptosis pathways. To test these and determine the clinical relevance of ERG as a biomarker for taxane resistance we propose the following: to demonstrate the effects of ERG expression on distinct parameters of microtubule dynamics, microtubule post-translational modifications, and effective drug-target engagement by taxanes (Aim 1); to investigate the mechanism by which ERG mediates resistance to taxanes through directly regulating gene expression related to cell survival, apoptosis and/or microtubule dynamics in the context of taxane treatment (Aim 2); and to screen pre-treated tissue samples and CTCs from a prospective cohort of men diagnosed with castration-resistant prostate cancer and that have been treated with taxanes (Aim 3). At the conclusion of this study, our findings will provide biological insight into the role ERG in taxane resistance. Data from our study will provide insight and clinical rationale for treatment decisions and for patient selection for appropriate therapies, a step towards personalized cancer care.

Public Health Relevance

Taxanes such as docetaxel and cabazitaxel are the only chemotherapies shown to prolong survival for patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer but despite the initial efficacy patients ultimately fail due to the development of drug resistance. Our multidisciplinary project builds on extensive and validated preliminary data showing ERG over-expression leads to resistance to taxane-based therapies however the mechanism remains unclear and this result has yet to be tested in a clinical cohort of prostate cancer patients. Data from our study will provide insight and clinical rationale for treatment decisions and for patient selection for appropriate therapies, a step towards personalized cancer care.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA179100-04
Application #
9262167
Study Section
Developmental Therapeutics Study Section (DT)
Program Officer
Forry, Suzanne L
Project Start
2014-04-11
Project End
2019-02-28
Budget Start
2017-03-01
Budget End
2018-02-28
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2017
Total Cost
$385,992
Indirect Cost
$158,268
Name
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Department
Pathology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
060217502
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10065
Dhingra, Priyanka; Martinez-Fundichely, Alexander; Berger, Adeline et al. (2017) Identification of novel prostate cancer drivers using RegNetDriver: a framework for integration of genetic and epigenetic alterations with tissue-specific regulatory network. Genome Biol 18:141
Antonarakis, Emmanuel S; Tagawa, Scott T; Galletti, Giuseppe et al. (2017) Randomized, Noncomparative, Phase II Trial of Early Switch From Docetaxel to Cabazitaxel or Vice Versa, With Integrated Biomarker Analysis, in Men With Chemotherapy-Naïve, Metastatic, Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer. J Clin Oncol 35:3181-3188
Gayvert, Kaitlyn M; Dardenne, Etienne; Cheung, Cynthia et al. (2016) A Computational Drug Repositioning Approach for Targeting Oncogenic Transcription Factors. Cell Rep 15:2348-56
Dardenne, Etienne; Beltran, Himisha; Benelli, Matteo et al. (2016) N-Myc Induces an EZH2-Mediated Transcriptional Program Driving Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer. Cancer Cell 30:563-577
Beltran, Himisha; Eng, Kenneth; Mosquera, Juan Miguel et al. (2015) Whole-Exome Sequencing of Metastatic Cancer and Biomarkers of Treatment Response. JAMA Oncol 1:466-74
Beltran, Himisha; Tomlins, Scott; Aparicio, Ana et al. (2014) Aggressive variants of castration-resistant prostate cancer. Clin Cancer Res 20:2846-50
Galletti, Giuseppe; Matov, Alexandre; Beltran, Himisha et al. (2014) ERG induces taxane resistance in castration-resistant prostate cancer. Nat Commun 5:5548
Salami, Simpa S; Schmidt, Folke; Laxman, Bharathi et al. (2013) Combining urinary detection of TMPRSS2:ERG and PCA3 with serum PSA to predict diagnosis of prostate cancer. Urol Oncol 31:566-71
Rickman, David S; Soong, T David; Moss, Benjamin et al. (2012) Oncogene-mediated alterations in chromatin conformation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 109:9083-8
Elemento, Olivier; Rubin, Mark A; Rickman, David S (2012) Oncogenic transcription factors as master regulators of chromatin topology: a new role for ERG in prostate cancer. Cell Cycle 11:3380-3

Showing the most recent 10 out of 11 publications