title: Custirsen (OGX-011): clusterin inhibitor in metastatic prostate cancer.
abstract: Adenocarcinoma of the prostate is the most common cancer in men in the Western Hemisphere. This diagnosis includes a clinicopathologically diverse collection of disease entities, encompassing a spectrum from early localized disease to advanced-stage castration-sensitive and ultimately metastatic, castration-resistant states. Although early-stage disease is treatable and potentially curable, treatment options for castration-resistant prostate cancer, the common pathway to prostate cancer death, remain limited and palliative in nature. Therapeutic resistance to androgen blockade, cytotoxic chemotherapy, and radiotherapy is underpinned by a number of cellular mechanisms. The upregulation of protective, antiapoptotic chaperone proteins is one of these mechanisms, and is exemplified by the protein clusterin in castration-resistant prostate cancer. Antisense oligonucleotide technology provides the potential to inhibit specific genes in cancer cells and with this the possibility of a vast impact in oncology, but no antisense drugs have been approved for use in cancer patients to date. Custirsen (OGX-011) is a novel antisense oligonucleotide drug which targets clusterin expression, and its application in prostate cancer is reviewed in this article.
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Oncology, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Sohaib
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Al-Asaaed
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Winquist
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000556:secondary; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D051152:Clusterin / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000556:secondary; D013873:Thionucleotides / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D051152:Clusterin; C503781:OGX-011; D013873:Thionucleotides