Prostate cancer is frequent among men over 45 years of age, but it generally only becomes lethal with metastasis. In this study, we identified a gene called cellular stress response 1 (CSR1) that was frequently down-regulated and methylated in prostate cancer samples. Survival analysis indicated that methylation of the CSR1 promoter, and to a lesser extent down-regulation of CSR1 protein expression, was associated with a high rate of prostate cancer metastasis. Forced expression of CSR1 in prostate cancer cell lines DU145 and PC3 resulted in a two- to threefold decrease in colony formation and a 10-fold reduction in anchorage-independent growth. PC3 cells stably expressing CSR1 had an average threefold decrease in their ability to invade in vitro. Expression of CSR1 in PC3 cell xenografts produced a dramatic reduction (>8-fold) in tumor size, rate of invasion (0 versus 31%), and mortality (13 versus 100%). The present findings suggest that CSR1 is a potent tumor sup-pressor gene.