Cause of metastasis in prostate cancer discovered

Prostate cancers remain localized in the majority of cases, giving affected individuals a good chance of survival. However, about 20% of patients develop incurable metastatic prostate cancer, resulting in approximately 5,000 deaths each year in Austria alone. Medical research has not yet adequately explained why metastases occur in some people and not in others. A research team has now discovered specific changes in a protein that drive the growth and spread of prostate cancer.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Cause of metastasis in prostate cancer discovered

Prostate cancers remain localized in the majority of cases, giving affected individuals a good chance of survival. However, about 20% of patients develop incurable metastatic prostate cancer, resulting in approximately 5,000 deaths each year in Austria alone. Medical research has not yet adequately explained why metastases occur in some people and not in others. A research team has now discovered specific changes in a protein that drive the growth and spread of prostate cancer.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New risk algorithm would improve screening for prostate cancer

Researchers developed an algorithm estimating a person’s risk of developing prostate cancer based on age and the levels of two prostate cancer markers, PSA and hK2 (human kalliknein peptidase). They found that, by setting a risk threshold above which men are counted as ’screen positive‘, the approach would reduce the number of false positives by three quarters compared to a standard PSA test, while catching the same proportion of cancers.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Virtual patient ‘surrogates’ can personalize cancer treatments

Scientists have developed mathematical models that act as patient ’surrogates‘ for evaluating potential prostate cancer treatments.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Advanced prostate cancer antibody drug shows success in pet dogs

Mice are typically used as models in advanced prostate cancer research, but the profound differences between them and humans has long bedeviled the translation of findings from the animal to success in people. Dogs however are the only other animal that suffers from a significant incidence of prostate cancer, and researchers are finding them much more enlightening subjects in identification of drugs that show promise for human patients.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New blood test combined with image-based prostate cancer screening reduces harms and costs

The combination of a novel blood test and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can reduce overdiagnosis of low-risk cancers as well as societal costs in prostate cancer screening, according to a cost-effectiveness study.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Genetic clues link lipoprotein A to prostate cancer risk

A new analysis has uncovered a potential link between higher prostate cancer risk and genetic variants associated with higher bloodstream levels of the cholesterol-transporting molecule lipoprotein A.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Assessing Progression Risk in Cancer

A molecular feature in prostate cancer, called endogenous retroviral (ERV) RNA, has been found to have prognostic value and also distinguish differences between men of African and European or Middle Eastern ancestry, according to a new study. The team also identified ERV expression signatures that may be useful for identifying prostate cancer patients at greatest risk of progression regardless of ancestry, which may also extend to progression in other cancers.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Portable prostate cancer test may help reach underserved men

A highly portable and rapid prostate cancer screening kit could provide early warning to populations with higher incidence of prostate cancer and particularly those with limited access to health care, such as African American men.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

The prostate cancer cell that got away

Researchers have pioneered a new method to track the progression of prostate cancer in mice, from its birth to its spread into other tissues. This approach allows researchers to study the origins of prostate cancer in a more realistic context than traditional methods allow.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New strategy against treatment-resistant prostate cancer identified

A new study has identified an RNA molecule that suppresses prostate tumors. The scientists found that prostate cancers develop ways to shut down this RNA molecule to allow themselves to grow. According to the new research — conducted in mice implanted with human prostate tumor samples — restoring this so-called long noncoding RNA could be a new strategy to treat prostate cancer that has developed resistance to hormonal therapies.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Prostate cancer urine test identifies good prognosis patients

Researchers have shown that a prostate cancer urine test can identify men at ‚intermediate risk‘ who can safely avoid immediate treatment and benefit from ‚active surveillance‘ instead. Previously, the team’s Prostate Urine Risk (PUR) test could identify men with high and low risk cancers. But thanks to some fine-tuning, it can now help men with intermediate-risk disease – for whom treatment options had been less clear.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Targeted prostate cancer screening could benefit men with inherited cancer syndrome

Men who inherit an increased risk of cancer through ‚Lynch syndrome‘ could benefit from regular PSA testing from age 40 to detect early signs of prostate cancer, researchers believe. Annual PSA tests were eight times more likely to spot cancer in men with genetic hallmarks of Lynch syndrome than those without. Experts say evidence could be incorporated into a targeted screening program in future.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

‘Gut bugs’ can drive prostate cancer growth and treatment resistance

Common gut bacteria can become ‚hormone factories‘ – fuelling prostate cancer and making it resistant to treatment, a new study shows. Scientists revealed how gut bacteria contribute to the progression of advanced prostate cancers and their resistance to hormone therapy — by providing an alternative source of growth-promoting androgens, or male hormones. The findings, once further validated in the clinic, could provide new opportunities for the treatment of prostate cancer through manipulation of the microbiome.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Metastatic prostate cancer comes in two forms, which could guide treatment

Scientists have identified two subtypes of metastatic prostate cancer that respond differently to treatment, information that could one day guide physicians in treating patients with the therapies best suited to their disease.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Studies biased toward genomes of people with European ancestry still predict cancer risk in diverse groups, research finds

Data sets that are biased by having too many genomes from people with European ancestry can still be applied to other ancestry groups to predict their risk of developing breast and prostate cancer, researchers report.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New blood test improves prostate cancer screening

Researchers recently reported that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could reduce overdiagnoses and thereby improve prostate cancer screening. Now, the same research group shows that the addition of a novel blood test, the Stockholm3 test, can reduce the number of MRIs performed by a third while further preventing the detection of minor, low-risk tumors.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Anti-androgen therapy can fuel spread of bone tumors in advanced prostate cancer

Anti-androgen therapy is commonly used to treat patients with advanced prostate cancer at stages where the disease has spread to the bones. However, new research has found that anti-androgen treatment can actually facilitate prostate cancer cells to adapt and grow in the bone tumor microenvironment model developed by biomedical scientists.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New insights into androgen’s action could boost battle against prostate cancer

Researchers have unveiled important new insights into how hormones known as androgens act on our cells – and the discovery could boost efforts to develop better treatments for prostate, ovarian and breast cancers.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Engineering T cells to attack cancer broadly

This study builds on decades of work showing that the protein IL-24 attacks cancer broadly, and is the first to deliver the protein using T cells. This approach is in contrast to CAR-T cells, which are built to recognize proteins on the surface of cancer cells and haven’t been successful against solid tumors. Mice with prostate cancer experienced shrinkage of the original tumor as well as distant metastases following treatment with IL-24 T cells.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

New prostate cancer test could avoid unnecessary biopsies

A urine test could have avoided one third of unnecessary prostate cancer biopsies while failing to detect only a small number of cancers, according to a validation study that included more than 1,500 patients.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Genomic test helps estimate risk of prostate cancer metastasis, death

A commercially available genomic test may help oncologists better determine which patients with recurrent prostate cancer may benefit from hormone therapy, according to new research.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

An unexpected, and novel, target for prostate cancer: Our biological clock

Researchers find that CRY-1, a regulator of circadian rhythms, promotes tumor progression by altering DNA repair.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

Higher coffee intake may be linked to lower prostate cancer risk

Drinking several cups of coffee every day may be linked to a lower risk of developing prostate cancer, suggests a pooled data analysis of the available evidence.

Quelle: Sciencedaily

MRI frequently underestimates tumor size in prostate cancer

Improving imaging processes will lead to more successful treatments and help reduce morbidity in men with the disease.

Quelle: Sciencedaily