Bone Marrow Microenvironment as a Regulator and Therapeutic Target for Prostate Cancer Bone Metastasis

Bone is the most common site of prostate cancer metastasis. Once prostate cancer cells metastasize to bone, the mortality rate of prostate cancer patients increases significantly. Furthermore, bone metastases produce multiple skeletal complications, including bone pain that impairs the patients' quality of life. Effective therapies for bone metastatic disease are underdeveloped with most current therapies being primarily palliative with modest survival benefit. Although the exact mechanisms through which prostate cancer metastasizes to bone are unclear, growing evidence suggests that the bone marrow microenvironment, particularly its hematopoietic activity, is a significant mediator of prostate cancer bone tropism. Moreover, the bone microenvironment may regulate metastatic prostate cancer cells between dormant and proliferative states. In this review, we discuss (1) how prostate cancer cells interact with the bone microenvironment to establish bone metastases and (2) current and future potential treatments for prostate cancer patients with bone metastases.

Calcified tissue international. 2017 Nov 01 [Epub ahead of print]

Sun H Park, Evan T Keller, Yusuke Shiozawa

Department of Cancer Biology and Comprehensive Cancer Center, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA., Departments of Urology and Pathology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA. ., Department of Cancer Biology and Comprehensive Cancer Center, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC, 27157, USA. .