Abstract A028: Dissecting the role of cellular senescence in prostate cancer initiation and immune suppression (2023)

Abstract Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in American men. Although many disease cases remain latent for decades, others progress to malignant prostate cancer with high rates of mortality. The molecular underpinnings driving malignancy are still poorly understood, and there is an urgent need to identify mechanisms and informative biomarkers of disease progression. Using the Pb-Cre+; Ptenfl/fl (CP) mouse model, we and others found that Pten genomic loss, a common occurrence in human prostate cancer, leads to induction of cellular senescence, senescence-associated inflammation, and immune suppression during tumor onset. Similarly, senescence markers have also been identified in benign and early prostate cancer lesions in humans. This suggests that senescence may play a yet uncharacterized functional role in prostate tumorigenesis. Cellular senescence is a damage-induced pathway leading to durable growth arrest and has long been considered a potent tumor suppressive mechanism that limits the ability of pre-malignant cells to proliferate and develop into malignant tumors. However, recent findings suggest that the accumulation of senescent cells can paradoxically lead to chronic inflammation that fosters an environment for eventual tumor development and progression through the induction of growth and inflammatory factors collectively known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Thus, it remains unclear whether senescence or specific senescent cell populations block or rather promote prostate tumor development. Leveraging the CP prostate cancer mouse model and genetic tools to track senescent cells, we observed that markers of senescence (SA-β-gal, p16, Bcl2) and the inflammatory SASP (NF-𝜅B, IL-1b, CXCL1, CSF-1) were not only present in early prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) lesions but remained elevated following adenocarcinoma development and progression, and could be found in both epithelial cells as well as other immune and stromal populations. Expression of the canonical senescence marker p16 also correlated with disease progression in human prostate cancer samples. Moreover, senescent cell accumulation was associated with a reduction in cytotoxic lymphocytes and an influx of suppressive myeloid populations that we and others have previously shown contribute to prostate cancer progression. Senolytic approaches to eliminate these senescent cell populations reduced progression to adenocarcinoma and remodeled the immune system to reverse myeloid-mediated immune suppression and activate cytotoxic lymphocyte immunity. Together, our preliminary results suggest that senescence might contribute to prostate cancer initiation and progression, and that removal of senescent cells could delay tumor onset and reverse prostate cancer immune suppression. Citation Format: Lin Zhou, Jarin Snyder, Katherine C. Murphy, Kelly D. DeMarco, Sachliv Chana, Karl Simin, Zhong Jiang, Marcus Ruscetti. Dissecting the role of cellular senescence in prostate cancer initiation and immune suppression [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference: Advances in Prostate Cancer Research; 2023 Mar 15-18; Denver, Colorado. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A028.