Researchers have discovered new techniques in prostate cancer treatment, the most common type of cancer in men.
Half of those infected with this disease develop metastases, which usually appear 15 years or more after diagnosis, but may appear earlier in a proportion of patients.
“CACNA2D4”
in Australia; The Garvan Institute of Medical Research researchers have enabled new genetic biomarkers to predict more aggressive forms of prostate cancer.
This is according to the researchers' new study published in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine (CTM).
According to the study, "a bank of biopsies that has been kept for the past 20 years at Garvan Hospital and Saint Vincent allowed researchers to analyze samples from 185 men who had their prostates removed after being diagnosed with cancer, then the team tracked the number of recoveries and deaths after more than 15 years".
The researchers looked at patients' genomes and identified 1,420 regions of prostate cancer where they could see epigenetic changes.
Of those regions, 18 additional genes were studied, and one of them emerged as a major biomarker; It is a gene "CACNA2D4", which is involved in the regulation of calcium channels.
The team made the epigenome sequence data available to other researchers for use in prostate cancer research.
The results of the epigenome analysis showed differences between men with fatal and non-fatal forms of prostate cancer, and also improved the clinical tools used in diagnosis.
The new findings offer hope for a more specialized treatment of prostate cancer, according to Professor Lisa Horvath, a Garvan researcher and oncologist.
“These epigenetic biomarkers help us tell whether a prostate cancer patient has the killer type or not to develop more specialized treatment,” Horvath said.
normal prostate cells
In addition, researchers at the British University of East Anglia have made an important discovery about how prostate cancer develops.
A new study recently published in Molecular Oncology reveals that all prostate cells are predisposed to developing cancer, which means that it is better to treat the entire prostate than to treat only the areas affected by cancer.
The team hopes that the study will help in understanding the causes of prostate cancer more accurately, and discovering ways to prevent it.
The team studied the DNA code in 121 tissue samples taken from 37 men with and without prostate cancer.
"The samples we studied included both cancerous tissue and other tissues that looked normal under the microscope," said Professor Daniel Brewer, the study's lead author and a professor at the University of East Anglia's School of Medicine.
"We found that normal prostate cells in people with prostate cancer contained more mutations (changes in the DNA) than normal prostate cells in men without cancer," Brewer added.
The study concluded that normal prostate cells in people with prostate cancer provide a fertile environment for the growth of cancer cells.
“Talzenna”
In a third technique, Pfizer's breast cancer drug Talzenna helped patients with advanced prostate cancer live longer without the tumor spreading, in a clinical trial whose results were recently published.
The trial combined "Talzenna" with the drug "Xtandi" marketed by the company "Pfizer" to treat prostate cancer.
Researchers from the company said that patients who received “Talzenna” and “Xtandi” were 30% less likely to die than those who took “Xtandi” alone.
Talzenna belongs to a class of drugs called PARP inhibitors, which are used to treat ovarian and breast cancer.
Pfizer plans to release detailed data about this trial at an upcoming medical meeting, and to discuss the results with US and international regulators.
To prevent prostate cancer, doctors recommend quitting smoking, losing weight, reducing fat intake, following a diet rich in vegetables and fruits, reducing dairy products, and exercising for thirty minutes most days of the week.
Comments
Post a Comment