| A
POTENTLY ANDROGEN REGULATED PEPTIDE AS A NEW MARKER FOR
PROSTATE CANCER.
Dr Lakjaya Bukuwela, Professor Ali Simak Imperial College London, Department of Oncology |
 |
Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) testing is widely used in the diagnosis of Prostate Cancer and in the monitoring of treatment for the disease. However, although the test is comparatively simple, PSA testing fails to identify a significant proportion of aggressive cancers, while only about a third of men with a "positive" PSA test have a tumour. Additionally, of men who are initially treated for prostate cancer, about a quarter require additional treatment, presumably due to recurrence of the disease. Taken together, these findings highlight the urgent need for new tests, which not only detect prostate cancer but can also help distinguish indolent from aggressive disease.
In order to identify new, more specific diagnostic markers, we have been studying the changes that androgens, the hormones that drive prostate cancer growth, bring about to the types and amounts of proteins made by prostate cancer cells. In doing this, we have identified a catalogue of over 300 proteins which significantly increase their amounts in response to androgen. One particular protein was made to very high levels upon treatment of prostate cancer cells with androgen. This protein is found in body fluids, including serum at low levels and is easy to detect. Further, one function of this protein is to stimulate androgen production in the body, indicating that this protein may also play an important role in prostate tumour growth.
Given this potent androgen regulation, we now propose to evaluate this protein as the basis of a new diagnostic test for prostate cancer, by measuring levels in patient sera. We will also carry out experiments on prostate cancer cells grown in the laboratory to see if the protein might play a role in development of the disease itself. Collectively, the potential benefits of this research for men affected by prostate cancer will be an advance in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying prostate cancer development and the development of a new test for prostate cancer diagnosis.
Research summary, 06 March 2007.
Project 2006/13