Growth factor receptors and prostate cell growth.

Five major growth factor families and their receptors have been implicated in prostate cell growth. The regulation of expression of individual members of individual families and their aberrant expression are candidates for causal factors underlying normal prostate development, androgen regulated compensatory growth of prostate and prostate pathologies (BPH and cancer). Despite the fact that prostate cancer is the most common male malignancy in Western countries and second only to lung cancer in black American males, the cellular and molecular biology of growth factor and receptor action in prostate is a relatively neglected area of study. The characterization of individual growth factors and receptors in progressing rapidly and provides the molecular basis to establish which factors by what mechanism underlie progressive prostate malignancies.