Breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men are among the most frequent cancer types in the Western world, still with a high mortality rate. Both of these cancers are sex steroid driven: Estrogens play a pivotal role in development of breast cancer, and androgens are the major growth-promoting factor in prostate cancer trough out all the disease stages. Our work focuses on the local sex steroid synthesis in breast and prostate cancer, in order to identify novel therapeutic options by reducing the local synthesis of active sex steroids in breast and prostate cancer in the primary tumors as well as in the advanced metastatic forms. In these studies, we apply both preclinical animal models and clinical patient material. In studies related to bone metastases of prostate cancer we closely collaborate with Centre for Bone and Arthritis Research, Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Nutrition, Institute of Medicine, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden and with the Turku Prostate Cancer Consortium (TPCC; https://tpcc.utu.fi/).
PIs: Petra Sipilä, PhD, adjunct professor; Matti Poutanen, PhD, professor
Members involved
Technicians: Jenni Airaksinen, Pauliina Toivonen
Selected publications about research
Huhtaniemi R, Sipilä P, Junnila A, Oksala R, Knuuttila M, Mehmood A, Aho E, Laajala TD, Aittokallio T, Laiho A, Elo L, Ohlsson C, Thulin MH, Kallio P, Mäkelä S, Mustonen MVJ, Poutanen M. High intratumoral dihydrotestosterone is associated with antiandrogen resistance in VCaP prostate cancer xenografts in castrated mice. iScience. 2022 Apr 25;25(5):104287.
Tiwari R, Manzar N, Bhatia V, Yadav A, Nengroo MA, Datta D, Carskadon S, Gupta N, Sigouros M, Khani F, Poutanen M, Zoubeidi A, Beltran H, Palanisamy N, Ateeq B. Androgen deprivation upregulates SPINK1 expression and potentiates cellular plasticity in prostate cancer. Nat Commun. 2020 Jan 20;11(1):384.
Huhtaniemi R, Oksala R, Knuuttila M, Mehmood A, Aho E, Laajala TD, Aittokallio T, Laiho A, Elo L, Ohlsson C, Kallio P, Mäkelä S, Mustonen MVJ, Sipilä P, Poutanen M. Adrenals contribute to growth of castration-resistant VCaP prostate cancer xenografts. Am J Pathol. 2018 Dec;188(12):2890-2901.
Knuuttila M, Mehmood A, Mäki-Jouppila J, Ryberg H, Taimen P, Knaapila J, Ettala O, Boström PJ, Ohlsson C, Venäläinen MS, Laiho A, Elo LL, Sipilä P, Mäkelä SI, Poutanen M. Intratumoral androgen levels are linked to TMPRSS2-ERG fusion in prostate cancer. Endocrine-Related Cancer 2018 25:807-819.
Knuuttila M, Mehmood A, Huhtaniemi R, Häkkinen MR, Oksala R, Laajala TD, Ryberg H, Handelsman DJ, Aittokallio T, Auriola S, Ohlsson C, Laiho A, Elo LL, Sipilä P, Mäkelä SI, Poutanen M. Antiandrogens reduce intratumoral androgen concentrations and induce androgen receptor expression in castration-resistant prostate cancer xenografts. Am J Pathol. 2018 Jan;188(1):216-228.
Järvensivu P, Heinosalo T, Hakkarainen J, Kronqvist P, Saarinen N, Poutanen M. HSD17B1 expression induces inflammation-aided rupture of mammary gland myoepithelium. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2018 Apr;25(4):393-406.