APOPTOSIS AND OTHER MECHANISMS IN ANDROGEN ABLATION TREATMENT AND ANDROGEN-INDEPENDENT PROGRESSION OF PROSTATE-CANCER - A REVIEW

Patients with advanced prostate cancer commonly present with dissemina ted disease. For these patients, androgen ablation is a first-line tre atment. This mode of therapy usually has an initially palliative effec t on tumor-related symptoms and slows growth, although virtually all t umors eventually relapse to an androgen-independent, more aggressively growing phenotype. However, surprisingly little is known about the ac tions mediating the initial palliative effect as well as the initiatio n of androgen-independent tumor growth. In this review, some current c oncepts on mechanisms of androgen ablation treatment and androgen-inde pendent progression of prostate cancer is highlighted. Special attenti on is given to the involvement of apoptosis in these processes.