Role of androgens and androgen receptor in prostate cancer: genomic and non-genomic actions

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common malignancy in western countries, representing the second leading cause of death. Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) represents a good therapeutic tool for the treatment of PCa patients, but after an initial period of remission, the disease progresses towards an androgen-independent (AI) state. While in androgen-dependent (AD) stage the roles of androgens and their receptor (AR) are fully described, in AI, they are yet matter of research and discussion. Consolidate evidence demonstrate that, beside the well characterized genomic effects of AR, the non-classic ones contribute to PCa development and progression. In this chapter, we summarize the main non-classic androgen pathways and their involvement in the main phases of PCa. All these studies demonstrate that AR is a crucial factor both in pathogenesis, development and progression of PCa and its rapid effects are integrated with the genomic ones to mediate the complexity of the receptor signalling. In such a scenario taking into account, beside the classic mechanisms leading to AR activation, also the non-classic ones should be helpful to find new potential therapeutic targets for treatment of PCa.