Prostate Cancer: November 2006 Archives

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. cancer scientists say they've demonstrated a gene involved in regulating aging also blocks prostate cancer cell growth.

Dr. Richard Pestell and colleagues at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University say they hope the newly found connection will aid in better understanding the development of prostate cancer and lead to new drugs against the disease.

The gene, SIRT1, is a member of a family of enzymes called sirtuins that have far-reaching influence in all organisms, including roles in metabolism, gene expression and aging.

A new urine test can tell prostate cancer from an enlarged prostate -- but can't tell whether the cancer is deadly.

The test, from San Diego-based Gen-Probe, is approved in some European countries but not in the U.S. It detects genetic material -- RNA -- from prostate cancer gene 3 or PCA3.

PCA3 (previously known as the DD3 gene) is found only in the prostate. When prostate cells become cancerous, their PCA3 genes go wild. Prostate cancer cells express 60 to 100 times more PCA3 RNA than normal cells.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Removal of the prostate, a procedure known as radical prostatectomy, and the surrounding lymph nodes may be adequate treatment for advanced prostate cancer, new research suggests. While adding radiation therapy may reduce the risk that the cancer will return, it does not seem to improve overall survival.

In approximately one third to one half of men treated surgically for advanced prostate cancer, some cancer remains outside the gland. How best to treat these men is a continuing subject of debate, Dr. Ian M. Thompson, Jr., and his associates point out in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Using radiation to try to halt the spread of advanced prostate cancer after the gland itself has been surgically removed does not appear to add much to overall survival rates, a study said on Tuesday.

About a third of the 230,000 cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in the United States each year result in removal of the gland, and of those the cancer has spread in 38 to 52 percent of patients, said the report from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

For the past four decades, radiation treatments have often been used in cases where the cancer has spread but the effect of such therapy on survival has not been tracked, said the report published in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

This press release issued by Eurekalert says that researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have for the first time implicated the muscle protein myosin VI in the development of prostate cancer and its spread.

In a series of lab studies with human prostate cancer cells, the Hopkins scientists were surprised to find overproduction of myosin VI in both prostate tumor cells and precancerous lesions. When the scientists genetically altered the cells to "silence" myosin VI, they discovered the cells were less able to invade in a test tube.

"Our results suggest that myosin VI may be critical in starting and maintaining the malignant properties of the majority of human prostate cancers diagnosed today," says Angelo M. De Marzo, M.D., Ph.D., a study coauthor and associate professor of pathology, urology and oncology.

LONDON - Drugs that regulate the hormone estrogen may help to prevent enlargement of the prostate gland in older men, Australian scientists said on Monday.

Early results from animal studies presented at a medical conference in London showed that an experimental estrogen-regulating drug prevented the swelling of the prostate gland which occurs as men age.

“We still have to try the drugs in humans, but so far these are very promising results,” said Professor Gail Risbridger, of Monash University in Melbourne.

Negative perceptions about radiation therapy can strongly influence a prostate cancer patient's choice to avoid external beam radiation therapy, even though studies have proven the treatment to be as safe and effective as other treatments for the disease, including surgery, according to a study presented November 5, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

"The study shows that patients base their treatment choice not only on technical information, but also on cultural and personal prejudices," said Riccardo Valdagni, M.D., an author of the study and head of the Prostate Programme at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, Italy. "It's important for patients to express their fears about radiation treatment to their doctors and for doctors to consider these worries and address any misconceptions about this therapy so that patients can make the best, most informed decision about their treatment."

The study, published on-line ahead of print in the International Journal of Cancer (doi: 10.1002/ijc.22319), adds to an ever growing body of science linking omega-3 fatty acids to a wide-range of health benefits, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), good development of a baby during pregnancy, joint health, behaviour and mood, and certain cancers.

The researchers, led by Maria Hedelin from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, also found that genetics play a part in the development of the cancer, and also in the potential benefits of the fish oil.

“This study shows that there is an interaction between dietary factors and our genes, but it's always hard to say what role the genes play,” she said. “Omega-3 fatty acids can still be good for men who don't carry this gene variant in completely different ways.”

Men with prostate cancer don't always need treatment, but there is no reliable way to tell which cancers are deadly and which are not.

Now, new research suggests a blood test widely used to screen for the disease can identify which patients are more likely to die from it -- and do so more than a decade before the cancercancer is even diagnosed.

In the study, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researchers report that the rate at which prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels change over time is an accurate predictor of prostate cancer survival 25 years later.