Research Study Verifies New Genetic Biomarker for Prostate Cancer Metastasis

Because many types of prostate cancer do not function like cancer, and treatment for these “cancers” is more damaging than the disease itself, finding biomarkers that may indicate a patient’s risk of cancer metastasis is crucial in finding the best treatment protocol for prostate cancer patients. The Roswell Park Cancer Institute has found new research that supports a previous hypothesis that the SSeCKS/AKAP12 gene inhibits prostate cancer metastasis.

The Details of the Study

Irwin H. Gelman, PhD, led the study and noted that aggressive prostate cancer cases typically involve the turning off of SSeCKS/AKAP12 and Rb, two regulatory genes. The study then set up a transgenic animal model to use to study prostate cancer progression when these two genes were deleted. According to their findings, the deletion of these two genes led to an early development of prostate cancer, including an 80 percent development of metastatic lesions in lymph nodes near the prostate. The findings were published in Cancer Research.

The Conclusion

After this research, Dr. Gelman and his team concluded that the earlier findings indicating that SSeCKS/AKAP12 inhibits the development of metastatic prostate tumor cells was, in fact, accurate. This provides a valuable clue to today’s doctors. In patients who have prostate cancer, monitoring SSeCKS/AKAP12 can provide a clue as to whether or not the patient is at high risk for metastasis. Those who have turned off or deleted SSeCKS/AKAP12 genes should be more aggressively treated because of this increased risk. In addition, patients who simply have their SSeCKS/AKAP12 genes deactivated, not deleted, may be able to be treated with drugs to reactivate production of the gene. This, in turn, may lower their risk of prostate cancer metastasis, although further research is needed to make a definite conclusion on this theory. This is valuable information for prostate cancer patients and their doctors, because in many cases the cancer does not spread outside of the prostate gland. As long as it is contained within the prostate gland, this disease does not pose an immanent risk to patients. The side effects of surgical treatments and other invasive treatments are often more damaging than the disease itself, which is why these types of biomarkers are so crucial. – See more at: http://www.hifurx.com/blog/page/2/#sthash.Lemc0XS0.dpuf