Dr. Christopher Ong

2007 Career Investigator Award, Senior Scholar

Novel strategies for treatment of PTEN deficient prostate cancer|,|

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men in the western world. In early stages, the disease is frequently curable with surgery or radiotherapy. However, there are limited treatment options for patients with advanced cancer of the prostate gland, or with cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Since prostate cancer cells require androgenic steroids to grow, treatment for advanced disease involves blocking steroids, which kills the cancer cells. While this treatment is effective in 80 per cent of cases, within one to three years, tumours develop that do not depend on androgen. There is no effective treatment when this occurs.

Research has shown that in up to half of advanced prostate cancers three are mutations in the PTEN gene causing it to be inactive. This makes prostate cancer cells more resistant to therapy, including chemotherapy, radiation and hormone-therapy. This stage of disease often has a poor prognosis.

The development and progression of cancer is dependent on the deregulation of the normal body process by which cells die and are replaced to ensure healthy growth and function. In cancer, this process is disrupted. Signals that would normally lead to cell death are blocked causing an abnormal proliferation of cancer cells. Dr. Christopher Ong is exploring how the loss of PTEN protects prostate cancer cells from death signals. He is seeking different ways to block the effects of inactivating PTEN. Results of this study will be directly relevant to the development of new therapies aimed at treating the subset of advanced prostate cancers that have lost PTEN — work that may have significant impact on the survival rates of men with advanced disease.

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