Bladder cancer: Androgen-dependent CD24 regulates bladder cancer progression-a new role for antiandrogen therapy?

摘要

Overexpression of the glycosylated mucin-like protein CD24 is a driver for the tumorigenesis and metastasis of bladder tumours and is androgen dependent, according to a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA. CD24 is a biomarker of tumour aggressiveness in many common human cancer types-roles for CD24 have been described in tumour cell proliferation, anchorage-dependent growth and metastatic progression-but it is rarely expressed in normal tissue. In this study, a team led by Dan Theodorescu at the University of Colorado sought to investigate the role of CD24 by exposing Cd24a-deficient mice to the carcinogen N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine (OH-BBN), which is known to selectively induce bladder cancer.