Castrate-tolerant cells： what are the implications for the treatment of localized prostate cancer？

More effective treatment of prostate cancer relies on eliminating cellsthat survive androgen withdrawal therapy. The discovery that castrate-tolerant tumour cells pre-exist in localized prostate cancer, prior to androgen withdrawal or progres-sion to castrate-resistant disease, supports the notion that neo-adjuvant therapies might be considered in the management of early stage prostate cancer. Advances in our ability to xenograft human prostate cancer provides a unique model system to study individual patient responses and test the preclinical efficacy of novel compounds for men with localized disease.