Diacylglycerol Signaling

Chapter 18
PKC and Prostate Cancer
Jeewon Kim and Marcelo G. Kazanietz
Abstract PKC isozymes regulate multiple aspects of tumorigenesis, including cell
proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and metastasis in a variety of experimental
models, making it a major regulator in the transformation to malignant phenotype.
Various PKC isozymes play key roles during the progression of prostate cancer in
humans and in rodent models. Interestingly, PKC isozymes have often been found
to mediate different and sometimes opposing roles in prostate cancer growth and
metastasis. Furthermore, expression levels of PKCs are altered when compared to
normal prostatic tissue or benign prostatic hyperplasia, and some of these changes
correlate with poor prognosis. This review focuses on the current understanding of
PKC-mediated regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and metastasis
in prostate cancer. We also discuss the relevance of signaling events modulated
by PKC isozymes in prostate cancer models as well as the potential of modulating
PKC activity as a means for the treatments of this disease.
Keywords Angiogenesis • Apoptosis • Proliferation • Prostate cancer • Protein
kinase C
18.1 Introduction
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in
the US. According to the American Cancer Society, there will be more than about
186,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in 2008, and more than
J. Kim (*)
Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center, Stanford University, School of Medicine,
Stanford, CA 94305, USA
e-mail: jwonkim@standford.edu
M.G. Kazanietz
Department of Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine,
1256 Biomedical Research Building II/III, 421 Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6160, USA
e-mail: marcelog@upenn.edu
M.G. Kazanietz (ed.), Protein Kinase C in Cancer Signaling and Therapy,
Current Cancer Research, DOI 10.1007/978-1-60761-543-9_18,
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
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