Peptide growth factors: clinical and therapeutic strategies

The literature contains many accounts of studies in which tumour growth has been accelerated by administration of a particular mitogen and the response then inhibited by co-administration of the corresponding antagonist. Much effort has been focused on the development of cytokine or growth factor antagonists. Like most other cancer therapies, biological therapies will undoubtedly have undesirable toxicities because the proteins they target may not be unique to malignant cells. We reviewed the clinical and therapeutic potential of growth factor agonists and antagonists in some non urologic and urologic diseases. In a recent report we demonstrated that both androgen and antiandrogen treatments enhance the proliferation rate of the hormone-dependent prostate cancer cell line LNCaP, expressing a mutated androgen receptor. Simultaneous treatment with 1 nM R1881 and 100 nM OH-Flutamide, completely counteracted the androgen-induced increase of Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) levels. Moreover we found that Testosterone, DHT and EGF are mainly concentrated in the periurethral zone in human BPH and long term treatment with Finasteride and with Flutamide modify the distribution and concentration of these factors. Some authors analyzed whether and addition of aurin tricarboxylic acid (ATA) can reduce the growth rate of basic FGF-dependent cells in a manner similar to suramin.