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(Ivanhoe Newswire) Currently, pathology reports and PSA levels are all that doctors have to predictor whether a man’s prostate cancer will spread or come back. New research done at the Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute has uncovered a biomarker that can significantly improve on what’s available.

Dr. Joshua Alumakal, MD conducted a study on men with localized prostate caner examining DNA and a gene modification process called methylation in which tumor suppressing genes like CDH13 are turned off. With the tumor-suppressing gene turned off, there is nothing to put the brakes on cell growth and spread. 

In normal cells CDH13 is active but in some cancer cells it is not. Knowing whether or not CDH13 is active or not can tell doctors whether a man’s cancer is likely to recur of spread.

Alumkal and fellow researchers examined prostate cancer tissue samples from the surgically removed tumors of 151 research participants. They all had at least 5 years of post-op follow up. The men who’s CDH13 had been turned off had a five-fold increased risk of recurrence when compared with men who’s CDH13 gene was active. Two-thirds of the subjects had no recurrence. One third did.

The study was the largest of it’s kind to examine DNA methylation changes and the recurrance of prostate cancer. “We were searching for a biomarker to identify patients for whom these clinical predictors (PSA and pathology) currently mis-classify as being at low risk for recurrence,” said Alumakal. “Finding such a predictor would improve upon our existing tools and would allow us to make more accurate predictions about tumor behavior down the road. Given that there were approximately 218,890 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in 2007 and 27,050 deaths, this work may have far-reaching implications.”

The research will be presented as a poster on Feb. 14 at the 2008 American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Symposium in San Francisco.

SOURCE: American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary, Feb. 14, 2008
     Oregon Health & Science University

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