Figure 1.

Role of hypoxia in the clinical course of PCa: PCa can be broadly classified into curable castrate sensitive and incurable castrate resistant disease. Patients with curable tumours can be sub stratified into low, intermediate and high risk of progression to a more aggressive disease state, usually according to readouts such as histological-based GS and measurement of serum-based PSA. Hypoxia is prognostic in localised patients⁵, attenuates local treatment strategies⁶, drives androgen independence⁷ and can promote metastatic spread⁸. Hypoxia therefore plays a key role in PCa disease progression. GS, Gleason Score; PCa, prostate cancer; PSA, prostate-specific antigen.