Predictor of Prostate Cancer Outcomes Identified

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Alberta in Canada have identified a biomarker for a cellular switch that accurately predicts which prostate cancer patients are likely to have their cancer recur or spread.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths among men in North America. Prostate cancer can spread slowly and doesn't lead to serious symptoms, whereas in other patients, the cancer metastasizes to other parts of the body causing serious problems and even death.Cancer researchers have been searching for biomarkers that can indicate which patients should be treated aggressively or which should follow through active surveillance. Andries Zijlstra, Ph.D and his colleagues have been investigating a protein called CD151 that facilitates the migration of cancer cells. In prostate cancer cell lines, they discovered that CD151 if free from its normal adhesion partner (integrin), another protein that allows a cell to stick to the surrounding tissue. This form of CD151 called "CD151free" proved to be functionally important in cancer.

The group looked at tissue samples from 137 patients treated for prostate cancer over the past 12 years. They determined that patients that tested positive for CD151free, their cancer recurred and spread earlier than patients without any detectable CD151free. CD151free has shown evidence that it may be a universal mechanism, important for cancer progression. This is a breakthrough for managing cancer treatments overall, not only prostate cancer, and how to properly treat certain patients early, without overly medicating patients that don't necessarily need aggressive treatment. Detecting cancer earlier, and predicting whether it'd be benign or aggressive cancer, can greatly save people's lives.

The CD151 gene is located on the short (p) arm of chromosome 11, where the red line in located.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131205171815.htm