New epigenetic markers for prostate cancer discovered
These biomarkers can be used with traditional clinical tools to predict the progression and spread of the disease, helping doctors develop a better treatment plan .
Prostate cancer is the second most prevalent cancer in men in the world.
50% of men will develop metastatic cancer during their lifetime which usually lasts between 15 years to become malignant cancer and a small proportion of men will develop metastatic cancer leading to death early in diagnosis.
Susan Clark, director of the Jarvan Research Institute, is the lead investigator of the study in a statement that "Men with prostate cancer need to get specialized treatments based on the nature of their tumors, so there must be vital signs to better predict the risk of developing the deadly disease."
By identifying patients who develop prostate cancer in its early stages doctors can start a more aggressive treatment plan early on
New studies published in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine indicate.
This is one of the most long-term and comprehensive studies on prostate cancer due to the slow development of this disease made it the most biologically difficult.
The study was conducted at Garvan Hospital and Saint Vincent by analyzing more than 185 biopsies held at the Biopsy Bank over the previous 20 years for men who had prostate cancer in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The team tracked the illness in those who survived the disease and those who died of it.
Researchers looked at patients' genomes and identified 1,400 areas of prostate cancer where they could see epigenetic changes that changed and signs of DNA methylation that might upend or downward gene activity without altering DNA sequencing.
In this study, 18 genes were further studied with one gene emerging as the biomarker of the CACNA2D4 gene, which is involved in the regulation of calcium channels.
There is not much knowledge about this gene and it is not usually identified, so we need to understand how the methylation process can inhibit the activity of the gene, Dr. Ruth Pensley, first author of the study.
The team made the genetic sequencing data available to other researchers for use in research coming from prostate cancer research.
Professor Lisa Horvath an oncologist and researcher at Garvan, was the clinical lead of the study.
These epigenetic biomarkers have the potential to help work in advance with prostate cancer for both sufferers and others
The next steps indicate whether biomarkers can be detected in blood samples in the first place.
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