Improving therapy options for patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer

Metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is the second deadliest cancer in men in the Western world. Therapy options are limited, but expanding. In the current thesis, various aspects of (pre)clinical research are discussed, all sharing the ultimate aim to improve therapy options for this group of cancer patients. Both basic, translational, biomarker, clinical and epidemiological studies have been performed, focusing primarily on novel agents that have been introduced recently into clinical practice (cabazitaxel, abiraterone, radium-223), and agents that may become antitumor agents against mCRPC in the future, such as antimitotics (polo-like kinase 1 inhibitors, aurora kinase inhibitors, Eg5), histone deacetylase inhibitors, and agents that stimulate expression of the metastasis-suppressor gene NDRG1. Furthermore, minority enrollment in phase III studies with mCRPC patients is being evaluated.