A new test to identify people at high risk of prostate cancer recurrence after radiation therapy could be developed within two years.
Scientists have identified two proteins that help determine whether a patient’s cancer will return after treatment. They can be seen in biopsy specimens with an inexpensive existing test that is commonly used to diagnose cancer.
Patients with levels of one or both of these “biomarkers” could be treated more intensively from the start, greatly increasing their chances of long-term survival.
This could result in them receiving longer hormone treatments or new medications, along with the standard course of radiation therapy and possibly a higher dose of radiation therapy, the researchers said.
Capivasertib, a new drug under development in the UK, appears to work particularly well for prostate cancer with low levels of PTEN, one of the identified proteins. “In the future, these drugs could be combined with radiation therapy to further improve cure rates,” said one researcher.
David Dirnaly, Professor Emeritus of Uro-Oncology at the Institute for Cancer Research, said: “This exciting development could benefit many people undergoing radiation therapy for prostate cancer.
“For patients who undergo these protein changes and are therefore at increased risk of cancer recurrence, the tests may allow them to receive more intensive and targeted treatment in addition to radiation therapy, which could make a real difference when it happens.” to get control of cancer in the long run. her prostate cancer.”
He estimates that for those people who have one of the two high-risk proteins, “long-term relapse-free survival can be significantly increased by about 18 percent.”
“These tests are a powerful, inexpensive and widely used method that can help address the current unmet need for prognostic tools in prostate cancer,” added Navita Somaya of the Institute for Cancer Research London and a clinical oncologist at Royal Marsden.
“It also has the potential for automated analysis in the future, making it an attractive tool for integration into clinical care.”
Matthew Hobbs, director of research on prostate cancer in the UK, said: “Men with localized prostate cancer can be one of the few diagnoses. Some of these men have non-aggressive, low-risk cancer that requires little or no treatment; many require radiation therapy or surgery; in others, the disease may be more aggressive and require more intensive treatment.
“In order to treat as many of these men as possible the first time and avoid harming them from overly aggressive treatments, it is imperative that healthcare professionals can determine which of these three groups a man belongs to at the time he is diagnosed.
“This study is interesting because it adds important high-quality evidence for new markers that will make this possible, and that can be easily, reliably and inexpensively measured.”
In a new study, scientists at the Cancer Research Institute in London found that patients were at greater risk of recurrence because one protein was lower and another higher.
They found that tumors with low levels of PTEN protein recurred almost three times more often than tumors with “normal” PTEN.
According to a study published in the journal eBioMedicine, patients with a 10 percent increase in the geminin protein had a 70 percent chance of cancer recurrence.
There are over 52,000 new cases of prostate cancer each year, making it the most common cancer in men in the UK. About 30 percent or 15,600 of these patients receive radiation therapy as part of primary health care.
Although radiation therapy is one of the “gold standard” treatments for prostate cancer, 20 to 30 percent of men—up to 4,700 a year—show signs of recurrence within five years of initial treatment.
This suggests that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of patients each year could benefit from a protein test.
About 20 percent of people diagnosed with prostate cancer die within ten years, with 12,000 people dying from cancer every year.
In this study, the researchers analyzed a wide range of proteins in 336 prostate tumors that play a role in important cancer-triggering processes in cells such as cell division, inflammation, growth, and death. They wanted to see if any of these proteins could help predict a patient’s response to radiation therapy and other treatments.
They found that PTEN, a tumor suppressor that regulates cell growth and division, and geminin, a protein that inhibits DNA replication during cell division, can predict response to radiotherapy independent of other factors already used clinically.
The study was also funded in part by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Center and ICR.
Anna Wilkins, ICR Clinical Scientist and Clinical Oncology Consultant at The Royal Marsden, said: “To our knowledge, our study is the first to analyze such diverse protein markers in a single combined approach and specifically define PTEN loss and a cell proliferation marker. . sweetness as independent and strong predictors of relapse.
“Currently, we are trying to teach the computer to automatically evaluate PTEN loss and proliferation markers, which would be very useful for individualized treatment in the clinic.
“New drugs are being developed, such as capivasertib, which work particularly well for PTEN-losing prostate cancer. Thus, in the future it may be possible to combine these drugs with radiotherapy to further improve cure rates.
Ian Foulkes, Executive Director of Research and Innovation at Cancer Research UK, who co-funded the study, said: “A reliable test for prostate cancer recurrence is an exciting prospect as it will help us beat some of the most severe forms to beat disease treatments.” Prostate Cancer This study took an important step forward by identifying two protein markers that could form the basis for a repeat test.
“In order to offer more personalized cancer treatment, we need to develop tools that allow clinicians to predict how a tumor will respond to treatment.
“We look forward to further studies that we hope will bring these results to the clinic as soon as possible.”
ICR has been working on capivasertib with AstraZeneca and Astex Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge biotech company.
Source: I News
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