Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer Aggressiveness

A set of DNA methylation biomarkers has been identified that closely correlate with prostate cancer aggressiveness.

Using proprietary technologies, the biomarkers were discovered by Epigenomics AG (Berlin, Germany), a molecular diagnostics company. The biomarkers correlate with the Gleason score in samples from prostatectomy patients. They also correlate with early prostate-specific antigen (PSA) relapse after radical prostatectomy, even in patients with mid-range Gleason scores. In the future, those patients who have undergone a prostatectomy may be more effectively monitored for disease relapse by these biomarkers.

The candidate biomarkers will now be incorporated into assays and validated against a large number of clinical tissue samples. Epigenomics is focused on developing a test that will be used following prostate cancer biopsy to differentiate between aggressive and nonagressive prostate cancer. Current techniques used to stratify prostate cancer patients and determine treatment options have only limited success because they are subjective and tend to vary among individual pathology laboratories. The biomarkers are the result of a diagnostic collaboration between Epigenomics and Roche Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland).

"The management of prostate cancer today is severely limited by the lack of reliable markers that predict the clinical course of the disease,” commented Gary Schweikhardt, head of the SBU Diagnostics of Epigenomics. "The data from our studies show that these candidate markers could be used as informative prognostic markers and warrant further investigation.”




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