TGF-beta signalling and immunity in prostate tumourigenesis

Importance of the fieldThe TGF-beta's are pleiotropic cytokines that regulate multiple cellular functions. Their role in the prostate is important for normal prostate development and also in prostate tumourigenesis.Areas covered in this reviewThe interactions TGF-beta-mediated signalling has with maintaining prostate health, as well as its role in prostate tumourigenesis and prostate tumour immune evasion, with emphasis on how a breakdown in these interactions may influence disease progression.What the reader will gainThat TGF-beta influences normal prostate growth and differentiation by regulating the balance between epithelial cell proliferation and apoptosis, and involving the androgen receptor pathway. That TGF-beta protects and maintains prostate stem cells and a review of the contrasting role TGF-beta has in prostate tumourigenesis and tumour development, where TGF-beta acts as a tumour suppressor and then switches roles to become a tumour promoter, and creates a local immunosuppressive niche leading to systemic tumour tolerance.Take home messageTGF-beta signalling in prostate cancer is a valid target for the treatment of this disease; however any therapeutic regimen will require an understanding of all aspects of the TGF-beta-signalling nexus, otherwise by the very pleiotrophic nature of TGF-beta, limited clinical benefits may result.Kerrilyn R. Diener, Eleanor F. Need, Grant Buchanan & John D. Haybal