Endocrine Abstracts

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer in the UK. Currently there is a lack of pre-clinical models to predict patient’s response to treatment for prostate cancer. Identifying which patients will respond best to treatment avoids exposing patients to treatment side effects unnecessarily. Primary cell culture provides a translational model to predict individual patient’s response to drug treatments. In this study, we develop a technique for isolation, propagation and characterisation of primary prostate cancer cells in 2-D culture from prostate specimens. Presence of cytokeratin (CK) 18, a luminal epithelial cell marker, and absence of CD90 (fibroblast cell marker) was confirmed using flow cytometry. The presence of CK 8/18, androgen receptor (AR) and prostate specific antigen (PSA) and absence of high molecular weight cytokeratin (HMWCK) on immunofluorescent imaging suggests a luminal epithelial phenotype with functioning AR. RNA was extracted from the cells and RT-PCR performed. Expression of alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR), fatty acid synthase (FASN), Golgi membrane protein 1 (GOLM1), AR and kallikrein related peptidase 3 (KLK3 – gene for PSA protein) was increased in both primary cell lines compared to PNT2 cells (benign) and comparable in both to that of two established prostate cancer cell lines (LNCaP and VCaP) suggesting a malignant phenotype with functioning AR. We have established a method to develop and characterise primary prostate cancer cell lines, which is of high translational relevance. This method has potential for use to predict a patient’s response to prostate cancer therapies, progressing towards personalised prostate cancer treatment.

Funding: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Research Endowment Fund.

Presenting Author: Samantha Patek, Institute of Cancer Sciences, Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, SCOTLAND. Email: [email protected]