Endocrine Abstracts

Metabolic alterations have long been known to occur in the transition to prostate cancer, from alterations in central metabolism to lipid metabolism and local steroid biosynthesis. However the upstream events that lead to these alterations have not been comprehensively assessed. In this presentation I will draw together genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic analysis, together with metabolic profiling. Overlaying the effects of androgen signaling on these pathways and metabolite levels will illustrate the circular links between the causes and consequences of these metabolic changes, with the aim of triangulating likely early events, disease markers and weak-points for intervention.

DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.42.IL10

Biographical details: After completing his doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge Department of Oncology, Charlie worked with Prof David Neal and Dr Ian Mills in the Uro-Oncology Group at the CRUK Cambridge Institute. Work there focussed on mapping androgen receptor (AR) binding sites in prostate cancer cells lines and in human tumour samples. Focussing on functional genomics approaches this work revealed direct regulation of central metabolism by the AR in prostate cancer cells and altered AR binding profiles in hormone relapsed prostate cancer tissue. More recent work has focussed on the genetic and epigenetic characterisation of prostate tumours, through collaboration with the International Cancer Genome Consortium. The combination of these efforts has identified a convergence at the pathway level for AR-driven transcriptional programs and epigenetic alterations in prostate cancer, these will be the focus of future efforts.