Study identifies gene linked to chemotherapy resistance in prostate cancer

A gene called FOXJ1 may drive resistance to taxane chemotherapy during treatment for advanced prostate cancer, according to a new study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The findings provide important new insights into why patients with metastatic disease often stop responding to a key class of life-prolonging chemotherapy drugs after initially benefiting. Given that taxanes remain the only chemotherapy agents with demonstrated survival benefit in advanced prostate cancer, understanding how and why resistance develops is an urgent need for patients.