Conditions: Prostatic Cancer
Keywords: Cancer of Prostate Prostate Cancer Cancer of the Prostate Neoplasms, Prostate Neoplasms, Prostatic Prostate Neoplasms Prostatic Cancer Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 31
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to determine whether quinacrine is effective in the treatment of Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer.

Detailed description:
Despite a modest improvement in survival with available chemotherapy treatments, androgen-independent metastatic prostate cancer remains essentially incurable.

Several changes in gene function that characterize malignancy have been identified. For example the p53 gene in normal tissue lessens the risk of cancer through growth arrest or cell suicidal programs. Thus the silenced p53 gene present in cancer tissue contributes to the growth of the cancer. In addition when the p53 gene is silenced, a cell survival pathway, controlled by the NF-kB gene, is activated leading increased cell survival.

Quinacrine can activate p53 and inhibit NF-kB, thus reestablishing cell suicidal programs and decreasing cell survival in cancer tissue. Moreover, quinacrine is effective against several prostate tumor cell lines in vitro, and has anti-tumor effects against prostate cancer xenografts in mice.

Arms:
arm 1: Uncontrolled treatment arm

Interventions: intervention 1: Quinacrine
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: 100 mg daily

Protocol document: