As the majority of prostate cancers never progress to malignancy, current treatments are often overly strong and unnecessary. This problem results from our limited understanding of the mechanisms of prostate cancer and the lack of markers to predict the progression of prostate tumours.  We identified a gene, GATA3, which is systematically lost in malignant and metastatic tumours in human. Using advanced mouse genetics, we propose to test whether the loss of GATA3 is an important event in the development of prostate cancer. The identification of the genes involved will inform us of the effects of GATA3 on tumour development. Furthermore, it will be useful in predicting which tumours will become malignant and which ones will remain benign, thus preventing unnecessary interventions.

This research project is jointly funding with Prostate Cancer Canada.