Calcium channels and prostate cancer.

Calcium channels significantly contribute to many cellular processes, including such critical ones as proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. In prostate cancer, the influence of calcium channels has been known for over 30 years, with the first observations that calcium channel blockers affect the progression of cancer towards more aggressive phase. Later research identified additional classes of channel proteins having an important regulatory role and affecting malignant transformation. This review discusses the accumulated scientific knowledge focused on calcium channel involvement in regulation of cell fate in prostate tissues as well as recent developments in patents targeted at prostate cancer treatments and involving calcium channel modulators.