Dynamic Tissue Culture from Prostate Biopsy Specimens as a Model for Predicting Tumor Radiosensitivity to Ionizing Radiation Treatment

摘要

Prostate cancer is the most common non-cutaneous malignancy in men. Radiation therapy is a common treatment for this disease however, most patients receive a similar dose of radiation (70-76 Gy) regardless of individual clinical, pathological, or molecular characteristics of the tumor. The hypothesis of this project is that all prostate carcinomas are unique and that by identifying specific tumor markers or other molecular characteristics using our dynamic tissue culture system (Parrish el al, 2002), were can identify those tumors most sensitive to radiation therapy. The specific aims for the first year were to use prostate biopsy tissue, obtained retrospectively, and adapt our organ culture technique to the requirements of prostate biopsy specimens. We have bee able to determine the optimal biopsy core size and tissue culture media conditions. We have also demonstrated that basal cells present in the prostate glandular tissue proliferated over the 72 hour time period of organ culture. We have maximized the length of time that tissue remains viable in our dynamic tissue culture system. We are now ready to begin Aim II of the proposal determining the baseline radiosensitivity of prostate tissue and assessing the roles of p53, bcl-2, and NFKB in the intrinsic radiosensitivity of prostate tissue. We hope to further profile these biomarkers and using them to predict prostate tissue radiosensitivity will aid in the diagnosis and prognosis of this significant cancer. We have received approval by the IRB at the University of Arizona to enroll up to 30 new patients. Dr. Shona Dougherty, Assoc. professor of Rad. Oncology has agreed to be the new Co-PI. We anticipate enrolling as many as 3-5 patients in the following 6 months. We will be processing these tissues for bio-markers as noted above. We expect to complete the project by April 30, 2005.