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Urologists identify Biomarkers that may help
pinpoint Prostate Cancer recurrence
Newswise — A simple blood
test may help doctors better predict whether
prostate cancer will recur or spread in
patients who have undergone surgery for the
disease, researchers at UT Southwestern
Medical Center have found.
In a study published in the
June 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research,
UT Southwestern scientists identified a
panel of seven biomarkers that can predict
with 86 percent accuracy which prostate
cancer patients will experience a recurrence
and progression of the disease. Biomarkers
are proteins circulating in a patient’s
blood that are specific to a disease.
Current risk assessment
methods, which include stage and grade of
cancer and the level of prostate-specific
antigen, can predict prostate cancer
recurrence with about 70 percent accuracy.
“There are several unresolved
issues in the clinical and surgical
management of prostate cancer, one of them
being the identification of men who have
insignificant cancers and can be followed,
and another being the identification of men
most likely to have spread of disease and
early or late recurrence,” said Dr. Claus
Roehrborn, chairman of urology at UT
Southwestern and one of the study’s authors.
“In the future, once we can
reliably identify those patients, we may be
able to offer additional treatment to
counteract that risk and give those men a
better chance for a permanent cure. The
panel of biomarkers is an important step in
this direction.”
For nine years, Dr. Shahrokh
Shariat, who is now a resident in urology at
UT Southwestern and the study’s lead author,
has been collaborating with basic-science
researchers and clinicians to find a
comprehensive group of biomarkers associated
with prostate cancer that could more
accurately predict the biological behavior
of the disease.
Using commonly available
blood testing methods, Dr. Shariat and his
team measured the levels of seven biomarkers
in 423 patients who were subsequently
surgically treated with a radical
prostatectomy and bilateral lymphadenectomy.
Of the study participants, 75
had a recurrence of their cancer. All 75 had
elevated levels of at least several of the
seven biomarkers. Dr. Shariat’s
seven-biomarker model was able to accurately
predict the risk for recurrence 86.6 percent
of the time.
“We found that a combination
of independent yet complementary markers may
provide a more accurate prediction outcome
compared to single markers,” Dr. Shariat
said. “This could help physicians provide
individualized care and targeted therapy for
patients. It will also allow us to design
clinical trials to target these individual
biomarkers.”
Prostate cancer is the most
commonly diagnosed cancer and the second
leading cause of cancer death in men in the
United States. Although prostate-removal
surgery and radiation therapy have been
successful in controlling the disease, up to
40 percent of patients experience a relapse.
“A prediction tool based on
the biomarkers we tested could improve the
accuracy of standard models and help doctors
counsel patients better about their risk for
prostate cancer recurrence and help to
determine the course of treatment,” Dr.
Shariat said. “There is no doubt that we are
approaching a time when use of proper
biomarkers will help detect, monitor and
manage the progression of this disease, as
well as assist with therapeutic decisions.”
The next step is to explore
the role of these biomarkers in patients
treated with other therapies, such as
radiation, and patients with a different
range of disease severity.
Currently, the
seven-biomarker panel is being externally
validated in a clinical trial at two medical
institutions, one in the United States and
the other in Europe.
Dr. Jose Karam, a resident in
urology at UT Southwestern, was also
involved in the study.
An international team of
researchers from the University of Montreal;
Vita-Salute University in Milan, Italy; and
Baylor College of Medicine contributed to
the research.
Visit
http://www.utsouthwestern.org/cancercenter
to learn more about UT Southwestern’s
clinical services in cancer.
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