Radiopotentiation of Enzalutamide over Human Prostate Cancer Cells as Assessed by Real-Time Cell Monitoring

Abstract

While radiotherapy is the first line of treatment for prostate cancer, androgen blockade therapies are demonstrating significant survival benefit as monotherapies. As androgen blockade can cause cell death by apoptosis, it is likely that androgen blockade will potentiate the cytotoxic activities of radiotherapy. Here we tested the potential synergistic effects of these two treatments over two human metastatic prostate cancer cells by real time growth monitoring (RTCA), androgen-sensitive LNCaP cells and androgen-resistant PC-3. Both cell lines were highly resistant to high doses of radiotherapy. A pre-treatment of LNCaP cells with IC50 concentrations of enzalutamide significantly sensitized them to radiotherapy through enhanced apoptosis. In contrast, enzalutamide resistant PC-3 cells were not sensitized to radiotherapy by androgen blockade. These results provide evidence that the enzalutamide/radiotherapy combination could maximize therapeutic responses in patients with enzalutamide-sensitive prostate cancer.