Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 22, 2026
A Bioluminescent and Fluorescent Orthotopic Syngeneic Murine Model of Androgen-dependent and Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer
Published on: March 6, 2018
Calcium-Sensing Receptor Tumor Expression and Lethal Prostate Cancer Progression
Thomas U Ahearn1, Nairi Tchrakian1, Kathryn M Wilson1
1Departments of Epidemiology (T.U.A., K.M.W., E.N., H.D.S., E.G., L.A.M., I.M.S.) and Department of Nutrition (E.G.), Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Medical Oncology (R.L., M.L.), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Divisions of Preventive Medicine (H.D.S.), and Channing Division of Network Medicine (K.M.W., E.G., L.A.M.), Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115; Department of Histopathology Research (N.T., S.F.), Trinity College, Dublin 8, Ireland; and Public Health Sciences Division (I.M.S.), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109.
Context:
Prostate cancer metastases preferentially target bone, and the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) may play a role in promoting this metastatic progression.
Objective:
We evaluated the association of prostate tumor CaSR expression with lethal prostate cancer.
Design:
A validated CaSR immunohistochemistry assay was performed on tumor tissue microarrays. Vitamin D receptor (VDR) expression and phosphatase and tensin homolog tumor status were previously assessed in a subset of cases by immunohistochemistry. Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for age and body mass index at diagnosis, Gleason grade, and pathological tumor node metastasis stage were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the association of CaSR expression with lethal prostate cancer.
Setting:
The investigation was conducted in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and Physicians' Health Study.
Participants:
We studied 1241 incident prostate cancer cases diagnosed between 1983 and 2009.
Main Outcome:
Participants were followed up or cancer-specific mortality or development of metastatic disease.
Results:
On average, men were followed up 13.6 years, during which there were 83 lethal events. High CaSR expression was associated with lethal prostate cancer independent of clinical and pathological variables (HR 2.0; 95% CI 1.2-3.3). Additionally, there was evidence of effect modification by VDR expression; CaSR was associated with lethal progression among men with low tumor VDR expression (HR 3.2; 95% CI 1.4-7.3) but not in cases with high tumor VDR expression (HR 0.8; 95% CI 0.2-3.0).
Conclusions:
Tumor CaSR expression is associated with an increased risk of lethal prostate cancer, particularly in tumors with low VDR expression. These results support further investigating the mechanism linking CaSR with metastases.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
03:03mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression
The mTOR pathway or the...
03:03mTOR Signaling and Cancer Progression
02:07Tumor Progression
Colon cancer is one of the best-documented examples of tumor progression. Early mutation in the APC gene in colon cells causes a small growth on the colon wall called a polyp. With time, this polyp grows into a benign, pre-cancerous tumor. Further...