A Geneticist's View of Prostate Cancer: Prostate Cancer Treatment Considerations

Prostate cancer remains a life-threatening disease of men. While early detection has been helpful to reduce the mortality rate, we currently do not have a desired therapy. In recent years, new strategies have been proposed to treat prostate cancers with poor prognosis by utilizing genetically modified bacteria, including Salmonella typhimurium that preferentially replicate within solid tumors (1000:1 and up to 10,000:1 compared to non-cancerous tissue) destroying cancer cells without causing septic shock that is typically associated with wild-type S. typhimurium infections. Furthermore, these bacteria have the potential to be utilized as drug delivery systems to more effectively target different subpopulations of prostate tumor cells. This chapter reviews progress in using genetically modified S. typhimurium for destruction of prostate tumors.