A new preclinical model using CRISPR, an advanced technology that allows scientists to cut and edit genes, has given Weill Cornell Medicine researchers and their colleagues a deeper insight into how prostate cancer spreads or metastasizes. In the study , published Sept. 23 in Cancer Discovery, scientists charted the complicated routes prostate cancer metastatic cells take as they travel through the body.
“Using virtual maps, we can reveal the hidden highways of metastases, one day guiding us towards novel therapies that could act as roadblocks for cancer,” said study senior author Dawid Nowak , assistant professor of pharmacology in medicine and the Walter B. Wriston Research Scholar in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Approximately 12% of men receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime.
The American Cancer Society predicts about 35,250 deaths from the disease will occur in 2024 in the United States. “Prostate cancer that spreads to the lungs, liver and bones has the most impact on survival,” said lead study author Ryan Serio, a postdoctoral associate in medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. When prostate cancer is confined to the primary tumor, survival is nearly 100%.
When the cancer spreads, or metastasizes, the patient’s chance of survival drops to less than 40%. A better understanding of prostate cancer metastasis opens possibilities for better treatments, said Nowak, who is also an assistant professor in the Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Computat.