Prostate cancer prognosis hope
29 Oct 2012 Cancer of the prostate - the most common male cancer in the UK - presents in two distinct ways: a low-risk type, which may never cause any symptoms, and a high-risk form that needs treatment to prevent it spreading to other parts of the body. Knowing which type of prostate cancer each patient has - some 40,000 British men per year - is therefore essential to ensuring they receive the correct treatment. Lead researcher Angeliki Malliri, from the University of Manchester's Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, said: "Prognosis tells, or biomarkers, give doctors an indication of how a patient will fare after treatment. In prostate cancer, biomarkers that help differentiate between the low-risk and high-risk types of cancer are crucial to decide if and what type of treatment a patient needs. The study, funded by Cancer Research UK and published , identified the protein β2-syntrophin as a new prognosis marker for prostate cancer. The team, part of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre (MCRC), discovered that the protein is involved in establishing tight connections between cells, which are crucial for holding them together to maintain tissue structure and prevent tumours from spreading. Co-author Natalie Mack said: "We showed that when β2-syntrophin is lost from these cell-to-cell connections, the cells become disorganised and this is what happens in cells from prostate cancer samples, potentially helping them to spread.
