USE OF A HORMONE-SENSITIVE (LNCAP) AND A HORMONE-RESISTANT (LNCAP-R) CELL-LINE IN PROSTATE-CANCER RESEARCH

BACKGROUND. In order to develop a hormone-resistant analog to the horm one sensitive cell-line LNCaP, different methods were tried. METHODS. After almost one year of continuous culture in RPMI-1640, containing a low concentration of androgens, the hormone sensitive cell-line LNCaP became hormone resistant and was named LNCaP-r. RESULTS. We used the LNCaP/LNCaP-r model system in order to study methods for the parentera l treatment of prostate carcinoma with estrogens, to study the mechani sm of action of estramustine, and to identify markers useful as predic tive tests for prostate carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS. A model system made up of the hormone sensitive prostate LNCaP cell-line and the hormone res istant LNCaP-r subline was developed and characterized. This system is , despite a number of limitations, easy to use as a first step to test different hypotheses that can be studied further in later clinical tr ials. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.