Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer in men in the U.S. after skin cancer. Those cancers that cannot be removed surgically are typically treated by hormone-depletion, but if the cancer becomes resistant to this therapy, it can metastasize or become difficult to treat.
One gene commonly mutated in prostate cancer has few therapeutic targets, but a researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is exploring how other genes in these cancers can be targeted instead. Di Zhao was recruited in 2019 to the department of experimental radiation oncology from the MD Anderson department of cancer biology, where she was a postdoctoral fellow.
Zhao says about 30% of prostate cancers have a deletion or mutation in a gene called PTEN that ordinarily functions to suppress the formation of tumors, and the percentage may be higher in cancers that have metastasized.
Researchers have had little success in targeting this gene directly, but Zhao is looking for other genes that become essential to keeping these cancer cells alive when the tumor-suppressor gene no longer functions. It may be easier to find a therapeutic target for one of those genes, and if the gene can be taken offline, the cancer cells may die.
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Prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer in men in the U.S. after skin cancer. Those cancers that cannot be removed surgically are typically treated by hormone-depletion, but if the cancer becomes resistant to this therapy, it can metastasize or become difficult to treat.
One gene commonly mutated in prostate cancer has few therapeutic targets, but a researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is exploring how other genes in these cancers can be targeted instead. Di Zhao was recruited in 2019 to the department of experimental radiation oncology from the MD Anderson department of cancer biology, where she was a postdoctoral fellow.
Zhao says about 30% of prostate cancers have a deletion or mutation in a gene called PTEN that ordinarily functions to suppress the formation of tumors, and the percentage may be higher in cancers that have metastasized.
Researchers have had little success in targeting this gene directly, but Zhao is looking for other genes that become essential to keeping these cancer cells alive when the tumor-suppressor gene no longer functions. It may be easier to find a therapeutic target for one of those genes, and if the gene can be taken offline, the cancer cells may die.
Zhao studies genetically engineered mouse models of prostate cancer and mines extensive genetic databases for functionally related genes. She found a gene called CDH1 that seemed to be essential for keeping prostate cancer cells alive and used mice to study its function. When the CDH1 gene is blocked, the cancer no longer metastasizes. Now she’s collaborating with other groups to screen for drug candidates that could target it and prevent metastasis in patients.
She is also using mice to study a particularly aggressive form of prostate cancer that metastasizes to the lymph nodes. “This is a very good model for us to study metastasis in prostate cancer and identify potential therapeutic targets and treatments,” she says.
Zhao says MD Anderson’s emphasis on translation will allow her discoveries to reach patients more quickly, and she hopes her work will allow prostate cancer patients to receive therapies tailored to their cancer’s genetic profile.
Zhao initially came to MD Anderson as a postdoctoral fellow to study pancreatic cancer. But in working with genetically engineered mice she found that the gene she was investigating was commonly mutated in prostate cancer and led to aggressive tumors. “I felt my discoveries could benefit more prostate cancer patients around the world,” she says.
“I’m very honored by the CPRIT award and it makes a big difference in my ability to build up the lab,” Zhao says. “And I can recruit more and higher quality postdocs as well as take on risky but high-impact projects.”
She says she’s very proud of working at MD Anderson and says, “I feel like every day we are helping patients survive. And that’s the most important part of our research.”
Zhao completed her undergraduate degree in biotechnology at Zhejiang University in China, and her Ph.D. in biochemistry & molecular biology at Fudan University in Shanghai. In 2014, she began her postdoctoral fellowship at MD Anderson.
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