Genetic Abnormalities Predict Prostate Cancer Survival
27 January 2010 - Researchers have discovered that the combination of three genetic abnormalities significantly impacts how long a prostate cancer patient is likely to survive with the disease, according to the latest edition of the British Journal of Cancer.
The team used the fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) technique to examine three specific genetic alterations in prostate cancer samples from 308 patients: loss of the PTEN gene and rearrangement of the ERG or ETV1 genes.
Previous studies have shown that ERG gene rearrangements occur commonly in prostate cancer as do deletions of all or part of the PTEN gene, but the combined impact of these abnormalities on survival in a large group of patients has not previously been examined.
The ICR scientists found that patients who had none of these genetic alterations had a good prognosis – 85.5% were still alive after 11 years. About 54 per cent of prostate cancer sufferers in the study were in this category.
The prognosis was much worse for the six per cent of patients who had lost the PTEN gene but had neither an ERG nor ETV1 gene rearrangement: long-term follow-up showed only 13.7% were still alive after 11 years.
The findings suggest that men diagnosed with prostate cancer could be tested for all three genetic alterations, and this information could be used to help determine how aggressively they should be treated.
