Epigenetics refers to how the body turns genes on or off without changing the DNA itself.
Think of DNA as a cookbook: cancer doesn’t rewrite the recipes—it adds “sticky notes” telling cells which pages to use or ignore. These epigenetic notes act like switches.
In prostate cancer, these switches can silence “brake” genes that slow growth and activate “gas pedal” genes that help tumors grow and spread. Over time, such changes can also make hormone therapy less effective.
The encouraging part is that some epigenetic changes can be reversed. Doctors may use epigenetic patterns to interpret biopsies, understand treatment resistance, and plan next steps. Clinical trials are testing drugs that try to reset these switches, often alongside standard treatments like hormone therapy, surgery, or radiation.
For patients, epigenetic changes may explain why a treatment that once worked stops helping. Trials targeting these switches might, therefore, be an option, depending on cancer stage, past treatments, and test results.
Healthy lifestyle choices can’t cure cancer, but they may support overall health during treatment and influence some of the same biological pathways involved in epigenetic regulation. You can ask your care team whether epigenetic-focused trials are available, what the requirements are, how treatment is given, and what side effects to expect.
Epigenetics is a revolutionary field of study that provides a pathway to advance prostate cancer treatments and diagnostics. This field can help doctors determine why a therapy may have stopped working and better understand biopsy results.
MEVPRO-3 is a clinical trial aimed at determining if adding the study medicine mevrometostat to the standard medicine of enzalutamide has a stronger effect when treating metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer as compared to using enzalutamide alone with a placebo. This clinical trial is currently recruiting patients with metastatic prostate cancer (cancer that has spread to other parts of the body).
> For more information, read the MEVPRO-3 Patient Summary.
Watch the Pfizer Learning Session Video About MEVPRO Clinical Trials Today!
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