Targeted treatment of prostate cancer

Over a half century ago, Charles Huggins demonstrated the response of prostate cancer to androgen deprivation therapy. Subsequently, many discoveries and evolving findings continued to support a research rationale focused on the androgen receptor (AR) as a key target for prostate cancer. More recently, preliminary trials have suggested that other targets could also be useful in the treatment of prostate cancer, and the proposed strategies for treatment have ranged from targeted toxins to immunotherapeutic agents. We provide an overview of some of these approaches, with an emphasis on those that employ prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) as a target.