Characterization of a senescence response that occurs during androgen-depletion therapy in prostate cancer ce

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in Canadian men and the third deadliest. If the majority of PCa are well treated using first line treatments like surgery, radiation and/or androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), a proportion of cases (10%) progress to metastatic cancer resulting in more than 4 000 deaths annually in Canada. Improving the efficacy of first line treatments is a challenge to prevent the apparition of more aggressive PCa metastatic stage. Cancer therapies do not necessarily trigger simple cancer cell death. For example, if PCa cells simply died following treatment, tumors should shrink and disappear in a few days, which is not the case. In reality, cancer cells can initiate multiple different responses to treatment varying from rapid programmed cell death to a viable permanent growth arrest reminiscent of cellular aging in normal cells. We now know that this senescence response is broadly triggered following cancer therapy in normal and cancer tissues and that these senescent cells can persist for long periods of time (months). Moreover, senescent cells are very active in their host tissue and actively communicate with resident cells, tumor cells and immune cells. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Francis Rodier

Student:

Nicolas MALAQUIN

Partner:

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Program:

Accelerate