Analyses of Neuroendocrine Differentiation in Localized Prostate Cancer.

Neuroendocrine prostate cancers are a highly aggressive tumours that typically emerge when patients relapse from hormone therapy. Interestingly some tumours have neuroendocrine cells prior to hormone therapy, and have been studied in little detail. This proposal will investigate the properties of early stage prostate cancers with neuroendocrine cells and determine whether they exhibit similar features and aggressive behavior as end-stage therapy resistant neuroendocrine tumours.