# Conditionally Reprogrammed Cell Model for Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC)

> **NIH NIH R01** · GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $114,328

## Abstract

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most frequently diagnosed cancer (180,890 new cases in 2016) in men in the
USA. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is an effective first line therapy for locally advanced or metastatic
disease. Unfortunately, once PCa recurs, the eventual development of castration-resistant prostate cancer
(CRPC) remains an incurable disease and more effective therapies are needed. Currently, a limited number of
cancer cell lines (LnCAP, PC3, DU-145, etc.) are available for research and many genetic mutations present in
prostate cancer (e.g., SPOP mutation, FOXA1 mutation, TMPRSS2-ERG fusion, CHD1 loss) are not
represented in such cells. New patient-derived cancer models are needed. However, patient-derived xenograft
(PDX) models are successful at less than 2-5% efficiency with aggressive, high-grade metastatic tumors and
organoid cultures only have an efficiency of 20%. However, our preliminary data demonstrate that conditional
reprogramming (CR) has nearly a 100% success rate for establishing long-term cultures from either surgical
prostate specimens or CT-guided biopsies. In this application, we propose the following specific aims to
validate the potential of CR for translational use in human CRPC. We will first establish CR cultures from
biopsies of 30 patients with CRPC and will characterize these culture genetically and phenotypically. Second,
we compare the patients' drug response to those of corresponding tumor CR cells and their derivative CR-
derived xenografts (CDXs). Lastly, we will use CR cultures in an unbiased high-throughput screen to identify
new potential therapies for CRPC in collaboration with Dr. Craig Thomas at National Center for Advanced
Translational Sciences (NCATS). New “hits” from the screen will be validated by both in vitro cell assays and
xenograft models.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9851887
- **Project number:** 5R01CA222148-02
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Xuefeng Liu
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $114,328
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-06-01 → 2020-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9851887

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9851887, Conditionally Reprogrammed Cell Model for Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer (CRPC) (5R01CA222148-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9851887. Licensed CC0.

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