The Isolation and Characterization of Human Prostate Cancer Stem Cells

The overall objective of this proposal is to develop a durable cure for lethal prostate cancer through the elucidation of the role of cancer stem cells in the pathogenesis of the disease. During the past year, we have made the following significant findings/observations: i)3D culture of human prostate cancer cells with magnetic nanoparticles is not optimal for tumor initiation studies, ii) in vitro co-culture of human prostate cancer cells (established cell lines and primary patient samples) with human prostate fibroblasts hold promise as models of tumor initiation/cancer stem cell activity. We continue to optimize and validate our in vitro model of prostate cancer initiation to facilitate cancer stem cell discovery as well as drug targeting.
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