Biological Effects of TMPRSS2/ERG Fusion Isoforms in Human Prostate Cancer

It has been established that 15-80 of prostate cancers harbor the TMPRSS2ERG fusion gene depending on the clinical stage, with 40-60 of surgically treated cancers containing the gene fusion. Thus it is the single most common molecular alteration in prostate cancer and as such is a critical target for diagnostic testing and novel therapies. However, there is currently very little information about the biological functions of TMPRSS2ERG fusions and the signaling pathways affected by this fusion in prostate cancer. Understanding the underlying mechanism by which this gene fusion promotes prostate cancer initiation and progression will assist us to better predict prognosis of patients and prospectively develop novel therapeutic methods for prostate cancer. We propose to extend these studies to primary prostate epithelial cells and fully transformed prostate cancer cells to further our understanding of the biological affects of the fusion isoforms in prostate cancer cells.