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Effects of 12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in Combination with Paclitaxel (Taxol) on Prostate Cancer LNCaP Cells Cultured In vitro or Grown as Xenograft Tumors in Immunodeficient Mice

Authors' Affiliations: ¹ Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, Departments of Chemical Biology and ² Pharmaceutics, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; ³ Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey; ⁴ Department of Surgery, Oregon Health and Science University and Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Portland, Oregon; ⁵ Division of Biometrics, School of Public Health, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; and ⁶ Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Requests for reprints: Allan H. Conney, Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, Department of Chemical Biology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 164 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Phone: 732-445-4940; Fax: 732-445-0687; E-mail: aconney{at}rci.rutgers.edu.

Purpose: To investigate the effects of 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) in combination with paclitaxel (Taxol) on prostate cancer cells cultured in vitro or grown as tumors in immunodeficient mice.

Experimental Design: Human prostate cancer LNCaP cells in culture were treated with TPA alone or in combination with paclitaxel. NCr immunodeficient mice with well-established LNCaP tumors received i.p. injections with vehicle or with TPA, paclitaxel, or TPA in combination with paclitaxel. The animals either received daily treatment for 5 consecutive days followed by a 2-day intermission, which was repeated for a total of 28 days (experiment 1), or continuous daily treatment for 28 days (experiment 2).

Results: Treatment of LNCaP cells with a combination of TPA and paclitaxel synergistically inhibited the growth and induced apoptosis in cultured LNCaP cells, and this treatment also induced a marked increase in phosphorylated c-Jun-NH₂-kinase (JNK). In animal experiments, tumor growth occurred in all mice treated with vehicle. When treated with TPA alone, the percentage of animals with some tumor regression was 33% in experiment 1 and 100% in experiment 2. Treatment of animals with paclitaxel alone caused some tumor regression in 17% and 57% of the animals in experiments 1 and 2, respectively. All animals treated with TPA + paclitaxel in both experiments had some tumor regression.

Conclusions: TPA and paclitaxel in combination had a stronger inhibitory effect on the growth of LNCaP cells in culture or as xenograft tumors in immunodeficient mice than either agent alone. Clinical trials with TPA alone or in combination with paclitaxel in patients with prostate cancer may be warranted.

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