The quest to determine which prostate cancers need treatment

Image courtesy University of York

CANCER DIGEST – Oct. 20, 2018 – Researchers  from the University of York in the UK and the University of British Columbia, Canada say they can now determine with 92 percent accuracy which prostate cancers are life-threatening and which can be managed.

Prostate cancers are generally categorized as slow-growing or aggressive. Slow-growing cancers that remain within the prostate can be monitored, sometimes for years before treatment is needed, while aggressive cancers need to be treated quickly.
The problem has been determining which type of cancer a man has when it is detected. As a consequence many men undergo unnecessary treatment. 

"The challenge in prostate cancer is how to look at all of these patterns within a cell, but hone in on the gene activity that suggests cancer, and not only this, what type of cancer -- dangerous or manageable?" Norman Maitland, from the University of York's Department of Biology, said in a press release. "To put it another way: how to do we distinguish the tiger cancer cells from the pussycat cancer cells, when there are millions of patterns of chemical alterations going on, many of which will be perfectly healthy?" 

The researchers analyzed 500 cancer tissue samples and compared them with non-cancer tissue to search for patterns of a certain chemicals that are added to part of the DNA that alters the gene’s expression, the gene’s protein production. 

They then looked for patterns that indicate cancer. Out of almost a million markers analyzed, they eventually found 17 possible genetic markers that distinguish between prostate cancers that can be managed and those that need to be treated.. 

The test, however, has only been tested in the laboratory. The researchers’ next step is to use in a clinical trial in men being treated in the UK’s National Health Service.

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