Molecular Classification of Prostate Cancer Progression: Foundation for Marker-Driven Treatment of Prostate Cancer

Recently, many therapeutic agents for prostate cancer have been approved that target the androgen receptor and/or the prostate tumor microenvironment. Each of these therapies has modestly increased patient survival. A better understanding of when in the course of prostate cancer progression specific therapies should be applied, and of what biomarkers would indicate when resistance arises, would almost certainly improve survival due to these therapies. Thus, applying the armamentarium of therapeutic agents in the right sequences in the right combination at the right time is a major goal in prostate cancer treatment. For this to occur, an understanding of prostate cancer evolution during progression is required. In this review, we discuss the current understanding of prostate cancer progression, but challenge the prevailing view by proposing a new model of prostate cancer progression, with the goal of improving biologic classification and treatment strategies. We use this model to discuss how integrating clinical and basic understanding of prostate cancer will lead to better implementation of molecularly targeted therapeutics and improve patient survival. Significance: Rapid development of drugs with efficacy against prostate cancer now makes it possible to consider applying these agents with curative intent in men with currently incurable cancers. However, when to apply these new drugs, as well as those under development, to obtain the best outcomes is a challenge that must be addressed. To meet this challenge, better classification of the disease based on the underlying molecular mechanisms of progression will facilitate the implementation of current and emerging therapies. Cancer Discov; 3(8); 849–61. ©2013 AACR.