Cancer Cell Plasticity
Research group
Ketola group
Cancer Cell Plasticity, Cancer Neuroscience
Current treatment options for prostate cancer include use of androgen deprivation therapies to block tumor growth but often, the tumors become castration-resistant. Even the second generation antiandrogens that do have significant effect on castration-resistant tumor growth in patients are not curative. Approximately 25% of prostate cancer patients with castration-resistant disease treated with antiandrogens develop a form of prostate cancer that is completely independent of androgen receptor signaling that fuels the tumor growth. Analyses of the pathology and genomics of these patient tumors has identified that the tumor cells adapt cancer stem cell and neuronal cell characteristics. Currently, there are no targeted treatment options for this patient group. Thus, development of novel strategies including selection of drugs that could be used to reduce the tumor growth and metastases in this patient group are desperately needed. We study the molecular mechanisms of cellular plasticity and treatment resistance and aim at characterizing novel therapeutic targets and targeted therapies against aggressive, treatment resistant prostate cancer subtypes including treatment-induced neuroendocrine prostate cancer.
Homepage of research group
Keywords
cancer microenvironment
cancer neuroscience
cell differentiation
drug resistance
live cell imaging
molecular signaling pathways
neuroendocrine prostate cancer
plasticity
prostate cancer
Group members - UEF
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Kirsi Ketola Academy Research Fellow , School of Medicine, Biomedicine -
Heidi Kaljunen Postdoctoral Researcher , School of Medicine, Biomedicine
Others
Other group members
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Roosa Kaarijärvi roosa.kaarijarvi@uef.fi
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Noora Laulumaa noorlau@student.uef.fi
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Tomas Darth
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Emmi Järvelä
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Maruf Sahariar
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Eerika Takala
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Okko Kääriäinen
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Kirsi Kainulainen kirsi.kainulainen@uef.fi
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Merja Räsänen merja.rasanen@uef.fi
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Henna Tynjälä henna.tynjala@uef.fi