A preclinical xenograft model identifies castration-tolerant cancer-repopulating cells in localized prostate tumors

Abstract

A lack of clinically relevant experimental models of human prostate cancer hampers evaluation of potential therapeutic agents. Currently, androgen deprivation therapy is the gold standard treatment for advanced prostate cancer, but inevitably, a subpopulation of cancer cells survives and repopulates the tumor. Tumor cells that survive androgen withdrawal are critical therapeutic targets for more effective treatments, but current model systems cannot determine when they arise in disease progression and are unable to recapitulate variable patient response to treatment. A model system was developed in which stromal-supported xenografts from multiple patients with early-stage localized disease c..