Test spots severe prostate cancer

Tailoring treatments may improve outcomes, experts hope

US researchers say there may be a better marker to indicate when a man has a more aggressive form of prostate cancer.

Checking for a protein called MDM2 could improve current testing methods which are less than perfect, the Fox Chase Cancer Center team hope.

Spotting the most dangerous tumours early so they can be treated is important to improve survival.

The work was presented at a cancer meeting in Denver, Colorado.

New biomarkers hold promise in strengthening our ability to predict response to treatment Researcher Dr Alan Pollack

To predict prostate cancer outcomes, doctors currently rely on measures that suggest how far the tumour has spread and how abnormal the cancer cells appear under the microscope.

They also use blood tests to look for a marker called prostate specific antigen (PSA), but the problem is that some men with prostate cancer do not have a raised PSA level and some men with a raised PSA do not have prostate cancer.

For every 100 men with a raised PSA, only about a third will have any cancer cells in their prostate.

And a stable PSA or a drop in the level with treatment for those diagnosed with prostate cancer does not always mean that the cancer therapy is working as PSA levels can fluctuate for other reasons.

MDM2

Dr Alan Pollack and colleagues looked at the amount of a protein called MDM2 in prostate cancer cells to see if this might improve prognosis prediction.

MDM2 is involved in regulating cell growth and has been linked to prostate tumours and other cancers by scientists in the past.

Among 469 men with prostate cancer who had been treated with radiation and drugs, MDM2 appeared to reflect which had responded well to these therapies and which had not.

Detectable MDM2 was associated with a doubling of distant cancer spread and a nearly 10% reduction in five-year survival.

Dr Pollack told the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology meeting: "New biomarkers hold promise in strengthening our ability to predict response to treatment.

"By identifying more virulent forms of prostate cancer, we may be able to tailor treatment or develop therapies to target the abnormalities identified."

Chris Hiley of The Prostate Cancer Charity Head said: "We very much welcome this research although it is early days.

"A test that can enable doctors to distinguish clearly between aggressive and slow growing forms of prostate cancer - the 'tigers' and the 'pussycats' - is vital.

"If this new marker fulfils its promise, doctors will be able to give much clearer, timely guidance to men on their treatment options and what outcomes to expect."

Dr Emma Knight of Cancer Research UK, said: "Such a test could reduce the need for unnecessary treatment while allowing those men with potentially life-threatening disease to be followed up more rapidly."

Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer to affect men in the UK - more than 30,000 are diagnosed with it each year.