Prostate Cancer: New Genetic Discovery Advances Understanding

An international research team from the University of Nottingham has taken a deeper look at how genetics affect the development and spreading of prostate cancers in men.

One of the difficulties with diagnosing prostate cancer is that it is impossible to tell the difference between indolent, which do not require much treatment, and aggressive, which require intensive care, cancers. The research team, whose work was published in Oncotarget, has identified a significant gene called miR137, which is switched off in prostate cancer cells, according to a news release. 

"With many men continuing to die from metastatic prostate cancer, there is an urgent need to develop new ways to enable the early identification of aggressive cancers when such tumors remain localized within the prostate gland when surgery is most effective," Dr. Nigel Mongan, the lead researcher, said. "We also need to make sure that men with indolent disease do not receive unnecessary treatment which can lead to urinary continence and sexual dysfunction."

The study examined the role of androgens, which are important signaling molecules that drive the development, repair, and regeneration of the prostate, among other tissues. The research revealed that defective and amplified androgen signaling can trigger the development and spread of prostate cancer.

This causes many prostate cancer therapies to attempt to block the androgen signaling, but the resistance to these therapies is an enormous challenge. The gene identified, miR137, functions like a "dimmer" for androgen signaling in normal cells, but it is switched off in prostate cancer cells, increasing the signal of the androgens, and causing the spread of the cancer.

The loss of miR137 greatly increases the initiation and spread of prostate cancer, making its identification an incredible breakthrough. This has opened up an avenue for new potential drug treatments for prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among men, and 27,244 men died of the cancer in the United States alone, according to the CDC. In the UK, one in eight men will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime, with 41,736 new cases being reported in 2011, according to Cancer Research UK.

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