Abstract

Biomarkers to Predict Aggressive Prostate Cancer

Claire Morgan, Senior Lecturer, Swansea University

Prostate cancer (CaP) is the most common cancer in men in the UK. Every year nearly 40,000 cases of CaP are diagnosed and it accounts for approximately 12% of all male deaths from cancer in the UK. Early diagnosis of organ-confined CaP is essential since radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy offers the only chance of complete cure and treatment of advanced disease is palliative and in-effective (in the long term). In addition, early organ-confined CaP is not always life threatening and can follow and indolent course which does not require treatment. It is generally accepted that currently available methods used for diagnosis and staging of CaP (prostate specific antigen levels, Gleason score and clinical and pathological grade) lack the sensitivity to distinguish between patients with indolent, organ-confined CaP, those requiring radical treatment and those at risk of relapse after radical treatment. Clearly there is a need to identify molecular markers of CaP progression, invasion and metastasis to predict diagnosis and guide therapy. Due to the heterogeneous nature of cancer, analysis of single molecules provides limited information and it is impossible to diagnose cancer or predict disease progression using a single biomarker. Therefore there is a need to a identify a panel of biomarkers that may distinguish indolent cancer from aggressive metastatic disease when used collectively.