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A new study from The Wistar Institute has found a link between the nervous system and the rapid development of neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), an aggressive form of the disease. Published in Oncogene, the study found high levels of neuromedin U (NMU), a neurotransmitter, in prostate cells during the earliest phase of NEPC formation.

NMU supports tumor progression by blocking the immune response. The findings could point to a treatment target for a disease that is now virtually untreatable.

"We already know that the immune system and cancers communicate with each other, which has led to transformative therapies for cancers that had once been thought of as untreatable," said Dario C. Altieri, M.D., president and CEO, director of the Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center and Robert and Penny Fox Distinguished Professor at The Wistar Institute, and senior author of the study.

"This study reveals that cancer is also communicating with the nervous system, potentially opening the door to new therapies for cancers that currently lack effective therapeutic options."

Prostate cancer is typically survivable, with a 98% survival rate five years after diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society. But NEPC is a specific type of prostate cancer that is considered immunologically "cold," meaning it does not respond to currently available treatments, including newer classes of immunotherapy drugs.

NEPC is different because it doesn't have any T cells, which is one way our immune system responds to cancer.

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