Currently, Prostate cancer (PCa) is considered the most common nonmelanoma neoplasia among men, classified as hormone-related cancer, is a complex multifaceted and biologically heterogeneous disease. Although the role of androgen receptors (AR) signalling in PCa development and progression has been well established, the intrinsic heterogeneity of PCa is due to the presence of additional signalling pathways. These include citokines, growth factors and oxidative stress response, which can modulate the AR pathway. Thus, the onset, progression and hormone-resistance of PCa can be triggered by cellular responses to autocrin and paracrin stimuli, as well as environmental factors, which are able to modulate cell activity. Environmental contamination plays an important role in cancer initiation and progression. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), such as beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (ß-HCH), are lipophilic and stable compounds, which are also endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Human exposure to EDCs is considered a possible cause for hormone dependent tumours. Different metabolic pathways are often modified in PCa cells to preserve cell division and growth, and are related to the malignancy degree. Also OCPs can modulate cellular metabolism and then contribute to the transformation of tumour in a more aggressive form. For this reason we decided to study how ß-HCH, can induce a metabolism shift likely involved in chemo-resistance and in hormone refractory of PCa. Understanding the mechanisms of resistance that cause hormone-naive prostate cancer to progress to castration-resistance is the key to develop future therapies and a Dietary chemoprevention as potential strategy for preventing cancer development. Recently it has been demonstrated in a number of studies that Natural dietary compounds exhibited several beneficial effects for the prevention of disease and the inhibition of chemically-induced carcinogenesis.
