Pre-clinical applications using PTEN-knockout prostate cancer mouse model

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To better understand the disease process of prostate cancer, we have developed a prostate-specific conditional knockout mouse model that targets the PTEN tumor suppressor gene. Our model is based on PSA-Cre recombinase driven inactivation of Pten to alter PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling specific to the prostate, resulting in a stage-specific development and progression of cancer that mimics humans recapitulating various stages of disease progression ranging from precancerous PIN lesions to castration resistant prostate cancer. We performed several experiments that demonstrate the versatility and usefulness of this model for validation of preclinical targeted intervention, biomarker discovery (leptin, lumican and HOXA10) and characterizing lifestyle behavior effects on cancer progression.