Neuroendocrine differentiation in prostate cancer: key epigenetic players

A recent publication by Dardenne et al. (1) in Cancer Cell (October 10, Vol. 30: 563–577, 2016) demonstrate N-Myc overexpression and its stabilization by Aurora-A (AURKA) and AKT1 Kinase induces enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2)-mediated transcriptional reprogramming repressing androgen receptor (AR) and driving neuroendocrine prostate cancer (1). This has important clinical implication proposing combinatorial therapy using inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-AKT and AURKA as future trials in the management of neuroendocrine tumors.