Sean McGuire

About Sean McGuire

• New hormonal treatments for prostate cancer such as Xtandi® and Zytiga® are effective, but patients invariably become resistant to these medications.
• Dr. Sean McGuire’s innovative research is evaluating potential therapeutic value of a molecular target downstream of AR signaling, the indirect targets of Xtandi® and Zytiga®.
• One unique aspect of prostate cancer is that the cells preferentially synthesize lipids compared to glucose. This process provides several specific molecular targets that if inhibited could disrupt cancer cell growth.
• Dr. McGuire is using experimental manipulations of prostate cancer cells to determine if the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (MPC), a key function of CRPC metabolism that increases during prostate cancer tumor growth, is a reliable target.
• The metabolic consequences of changes to MPC are currently unknown. A better understanding of this process will provide a foundation for the development of therapies targeting prostate cancer metabolic processes downstream of targets of Xtandi® and Zytiga® for patients with CRPC.

What this means for patients: There is an urgent clinical need to develop new therapies for patients resistant to Xtandi® and Zytiga®. Characterizing metabolic alterations specific to prostate cancer cells may lead to novel personalized therapies for men with advanced forms of the disease.