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Morgan et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2017;3:278-87 Journal of
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2017.31
Cancer Metastasis and Treatment

www.jcmtjournal.com
Topic: How does the prostate cancer microenvironment affect Topic: Open Access
the metastatic process and/or treatment outcome?

HOX transcription factors and the prostate
tumor microenvironment

Richard Morgan , Hardev S. Pandha 2
1
1 Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK.
2 Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK.
Correspondence to: Prof. Richard Morgan, Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP,
UK. E-mail: r.morgan3@bradford.ac.uk

How to cite this article: Morgan R, Pandha HS. HOX transcription factors and the prostate tumor microenvironment. J Cancer Metastasis Treat
2017;3:278-87.
ABSTRACT
Article history: It is now well established that the tumor microenvironment plays an essential role in the
Received: 15 May 2017 survival, growth, invasion, and spread of cancer through the regulation of angiogenesis
First Decision: 3 Jul 2017 and localized immune responses. This review examines the role of the HOX genes, which
Revised: 7 Jul 2017 encode a family of homeodomain-containing transcription factors, in the interaction
Accepted: 14 Aug 2017 between prostate tumors and their microenvironment. Previous studies have established
Published: 6 Dec 2017 that HOX genes have an important function in prostate cancer cell survival in vitro
Key words: and in vivo, but there is also evidence that HOX proteins regulate the expression of
Prostate cancer, genes in the cancer cell that influence the tumor microenvironment, and that cells in the
tumor microenvironment, microenvironment likewise express HOX genes that confer a tumor-supportive function.
HOX, Here we provide an overview of these studies that, taken together, indicate that the HOX
PBX, genes help mediate cross talk between prostate tumors and their microenvironment.
metastasis,
angiogenesis

INTRODUCTION HOX family of transcription factors in the interaction
between prostate tumors and their microenvironment.
In addition to cancer cells, tumor tissue contains a
variety of host cells, extracellular matrix components, THE HOX GENES
and secreted proteins that together constitute the
tumor microenvironment . Crosstalk between the Early embryonic development is characterized by a
[1]
tumor and its microenvironment has an important role number of overlapping signaling events that give rise
in tumor development, including the recruitment of to stable transcriptional states and these in turn confer
immune cells and vascular cells, both of which can specific identities at both the cellular and tissue level.
have profound effects on the survival and spread Many of the transcription factors that are responsible
of the tumor and are therefore targets for cancer for regulating embryonic development were originally
therapy [2-4] . In this review, we consider the role of the characterized by the distinct phenotypes caused by
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