Biomarker Panel Identifies Prostate Cancer - 90% Accuracy

The set of biomarkers has 90 percent accuracy. This preliminary data, if validated in larger ongoing studies, could be developed into a serum protein test that reduces the number of unnecessary biopsies and identifies men who need treatment before symptoms begin.

The researchers, from Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) and its subsidiary, Sense Proteomic, Ltd., presented their findings at the Fourth AACR International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development.

The researchers developed a microarray of 925 proteins, and then used blood samples to test arrays. They compared the results from 73 samples from patients diagnosed with prostate cancer to 60 samples from a control group of cancer-free individuals to find proteins on the arrays that were bound by autoantibodies present in the blood samples.

Panels of up to 15 biomarkers were identified that distinguished prostate cancer from both benign prostate disease and healthy tissue. The researchers are now testing the biomarker panel in 1,700 samples drawn from prostate cancer patients, cancer-free controls, and patients with other cancers or with other prostate diseases. Identifying prostate cancer from other prostate disease will be the real test of the biomarker panel, according to the researchers.

(from the American Association for Cancer Research, http://www.aacr.org/home/public--media/aacr-press-releases.aspx?d=2063)