A gene to predict prostate cancer aggressiveness

Researchers from the University of Glasgow and Royal Philips Cancer have identified a gene that could help doctors to predict the aggressiveness of prostate cancer in patients, thus ensuring such patients receive an optimal level of treatment.

Prostate cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in the UK, claiming the lives of approximately 11,000 men each year. It is also the most common cancer in men in the UK, accounting for a quarter of all new cases of cancer in males — around 42,000 each year in total.

“Men at risk of dying from prostate cancer need early and aggressive therapy for optimal care,” said Professor George Baillie from the University of Glasgow. “Those with lower-risk forms of the disease could receive more benefit from much milder forms of treatments.”

Writing in the British Journal of Cancer, Professor Baillie and his co-authors explained how they examined 1475 patient samples to learn more about the expression of a gene known as PDE4D7. The researchers had previously demonstrated that in prostate cancer cell lines, PDE4D7 is downregulated in advanced cases of the disease.

“To investigate further the prognostic power of PDE4D7 expression during prostate cancer progression and assess how downregulation of this PDE isoform may affect disease outcome, we have examined PDE4D7 expression in physiologically relevant primary human samples,” the study authors said.

They found that PDE4D7 provided a valuable insight into the aggressiveness of prostate cancer, and the likely recurrence of the disease after treatment. According to Professor Baillie, the gene “acts as a more effective biomarker to predict the aggressiveness of patients’ prostate cancer than any others which have been used before”.

“This biomarker gives us a much more reliable way of determining which form of treatment patients require, which could prevent thousands of unnecessary surgeries every year,” Professor Baillie noted. In addition, those with an aggressive form of the disease might benefit from the development of innovative therapies in the future.