The carcinoma-associated antigen EpCAM in prostate cancer

Aim: We will investigate EpCAM signaling in prostate cancer to advance understanding of EpCAM as a key player of cancer development and progression. We will explore how EpCAM signaling is activated in prostate cancer cells and identify novel EpCAM target genes to define molecules driving prostate cancer cell proliferation, survival, and progression. This knowledge will help us to interfere with cancer promoting signals induced by EpCAM and, thus, propose new therapeutic strategies and discover novel interventions for prostate cancer. Scientific impact: Only since two years we know that EpCAM is not only a tumor maker and potential cell adhesion molecule, but also a signal transducing receptor with oncogenic potential. In prostate cancer EpCAM signaling was not investigated so far. Our work will increase the knowledge on EpCAM signaling and thereby advance understanding of EpCAM as a central cancer driver using prostate cancer as a model. This knowledge will help us to interfere with cancer promoting signals transmitted by EpCAM to propose new therapeutic strategies for cancer. As EpCAM is expressed in almost all carcinomas, these strategies are of interest for a great variety of carcinomas from different origins.