Prostate cancer protein focus of biology prof's new study

While many men are growing moustaches this month to raise funds for research on prostate cancer, a biology professor is gearing up to launch a new study aimed at better understanding how it spreads.

Dora Cavallo-Medved recently received a $73,000 grant from the Seeds4Hope program of the Windsor and Essex County Cancer Centre Foundation to study the role that a protein called Caveolin-1 plays in promoting the spread of prostate cancer cells to nearby tissues.

“If we know how they progress, maybe we can stop the process,” said Dr. Cavallo-Medved, who is also a member of the new Windsor Cancer Research Group that was officially launched on the weekend.

Prostate is the third deadliest form of cancer among Canadian men. Research on the disease has typically focused on the cancerous cells, but there is growing evidence to suggest there may be a role played by neighbouring normal cells that live in the prostate tumour microenvironment, she said.

Caveolin-1 is a structural protein that’s found in the membrane of cells and is involved in cellular communication. Cavallo-Medved is trying to understand the mechanism by which it promotes prostate cancer invasion through its interaction with protein-digesting enzymes called proteases.

“Caveolin-1 is over produced and secreted by highly aggressive prostate cancer cells and picked up by normal cells as a signal,” she explained. “As a result, the normal cells release proteases that help the cancer cells invade. They basically chew through the matrix that holds the cells.”

Rather than growing cancer cells that spread out in the bottom of a Petri-dish creating a flat, two-dimensional model, Cavallo-Medved’s team will use a 3D method that more closely replicates how cancer cells would spread through a person.

“Cancer cells don’t grow on a flat piece of plastic in your body,” she said. “They grow in a matrix and they form a three-dimensional structure.”

Cavallo-Medved’s group will mix prostate cancer cells with normal cells inside that 3D structure, tagging them with different coloured fluorescent biomarkers, and then use a high-powered confocal microscope to observe their interactions over long periods of time.

“If you give these cells the proper environment, they’ll mimic what’s really going on in the body,” she said. “We can tag Caveolin-1, watch where it’s going and see how it’s working.”