Quinacrine Treatment in Patients With Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer

Despite a modest improvement in survival with available chemotherapy treatments, androgen-independent metastatic prostate cancer remains essentially incurable. Several changes in gene function that characterize malignancy have been identified. For example the p53 gene in normal tissue lessens the risk of cancer through growth arrest or cell suicidal programs. Thus the silenced p53 gene present in cancer tissue contributes to the growth of the cancer. In addition when the p53 gene is silenced, a cell survival pathway, controlled by the NF-kB gene, is activated leading increased cell survival. Quinacrine can activate p53 and inhibit NF-kB, thus reestablishing cell suicidal programs and decreasing cell survival in cancer tissue. Moreover, quinacrine is effective against several prostate tumor cell lines in vitro, and has anti-tumor effects against prostate cancer xenografts in mice.