Moffitt Cancer Center researchers identify genetic variants predicting aggressive prostate cancers

Understanding single nucleotide polymorphisms interactions may help patients avoid unnecessary radical treatment

2013-06-19

(Press-News.org) Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues at Louisiana State University have developed a method for identifying aggressive prostate cancers that require immediate therapy. It relies on understanding the genetic interaction between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The goal is to better predict a prostate cancer's aggressiveness to avoid unnecessary radical treatment.

Their study was published in the online journal PLOS ONE in April.

According to the authors, prostate cancer accounts for 20 percent of all cancers and 9 percent of cancer deaths. It is the most common cancer and was the second leading cause of cancer death in American men in 2012.

"For most prostate cancer patients, the disease progresses relatively slowly," said study co-author Hui-Yi Lin, Ph.D., assistant member of the Chemical Biology and Molecular Medicine Program at Moffitt. "However, some cases grow aggressively and metastasize. It is often difficult to tell the difference between the two."

The two treatment options for aggressive prostate cancer — radical surgery and radiation therapy — have negative side effects, such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction. It is why the authors believe there is an urgent need for biomarkers that can identify or predict aggressive types of prostate cancer.

Through examining combinations of genetic variants, or SNP-SNP interactions, the researchers have identified and validated several genetic changes that are related to prostate cancer aggressiveness. Their work also shows that the epithelial growth factor receptor may be the hub for these interactions because it is involved in the growth of blood vessels (angiogenesis), which in turn stimulates tumor growth.

"Our findings identified five SNP-SNP interactions in the angiogenesis genes associated with prostate cancer aggressiveness," explained study co-author Jong Y. Park, Ph.D., associate member of Moffitt's Cancer Epidemiology Program. "We successfully detected the genotype combinations that put patients at risk of aggressive prostate cancer and then explored the underlying biological associations among angiogenesis genes associated with aggressive prostate cancer."

The researchers concluded that the gene network they constructed based on SNP-SNP interactions indicates there are novel relationships among critical genes involved in the angiogenesis pathway in prostate cancer.

"Our findings will help physicians identify patients with an aggressive type of prostate cancer and may lead to better personalized treatment in the future," Park said.

### The study was supported by grants from the American Cancer Society (IRG-93-092-14) and the National Cancer Institute (R01 CA128813, R25T CA147832).

About Moffitt Cancer Center Located in Tampa, Moffitt is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a distinction that recognizes Moffitt's excellence in research, its contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Since 1999, Moffitt has been listed in U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's Best Hospitals" for cancer. With more than 4,200 employees, Moffitt has an economic impact on the state of nearly $2 billion. For more information, visit MOFFITT.org, and follow the Moffitt momentum on Facebook, twitter and YouTube.

Media release by Florida Science Communications

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

An environmentally friendly battery made from wood

2013-06-19

Taking inspiration from trees, scientists have developed a battery made from a sliver of wood coated with tin that shows promise for becoming a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly energy source. Their report on the device — 1,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper — appears in the journal Nano Letters. Liangbing Hu, Teng Li and colleagues point out that today's batteries often use stiff, non-flexible substrates, which are too rigid to release the stress that occurs as ions flow through the battery. They knew that wood fibers from trees are supple ...

New canary seed is ideal for gluten-free diets in celiac disease

2013-06-19

A new variety of canary seeds bred specifically for human consumption qualifies as a gluten-free cereal that would be ideal for people with celiac disease (CD), scientists have confirmed in a study published in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Joyce Irene Boye and colleagues point out that at least 3 million people in the United States alone have CD. They develop gastrointestinal and other symptoms from eating wheat, barley, rye and other grains that contain gluten-related proteins. Boye's team sought to expand dietary options for CD — which now include ...

Pearly perfection

2013-06-19

The mystery of how pearls form into the most perfectly spherical large objects in nature may have an unlikely explanation, scientists are proposing in a new study. It appears in ACS' journal Langmuir, named for 1932 Nobel Laureate Irving Langmuir. Julyan Cartwright, Antonio G. Checa and Marthe Rousseau point out that the most flawless and highly prized pearls have perhaps the most perfectly spherical, or ball-like, shape among all the objects in nature that are visible without a microscope. Pearls develop as nacre (mother of pearl) and other liquids accumulate around ...

Are we pushing animals over the edge?

2013-06-19

Species of mammals and birds are threatened with extinction as a result of rising human population density, according to Jeffrey McKee and colleagues from The Ohio State University in the US. Their work is also the first to show that the exponential growth of the human population will continue to pose a threat to other species. In other words, there does not appear to be a threshold above which population growth would cease to have an incremental negative effect. The study is published online in Springer's journal, Human Ecology. It has long been suspected that the number ...

Renewed hope in a once-abandoned cancer drug class

2013-06-19

Could drugs that block the body's system for repairing damage to the genetic material DNA become a boon to health? As unlikely as it may seem, those compounds are sparking optimism as potential treatments for ovarian and breast cancers driven by a mutation in BRCA, a gene that made headlines when actress Angelina Jolie revealed she carries the mutation. The compounds, termed PARP inhibitors, are the topic of the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific ...

Extended primary care office hours might help keep kids out of the emergency department

2013-06-19

Ann Arbor, Mich. — Children had half as many emergency department visits if their primary care office had evening office hours on five or more days a week, according to new research from child health experts at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and Johns Hopkins University. The new study was published online this month in The Journal of Pediatrics and will be presented at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting. "These findings are an important step in understanding where primary care practices and medical home programs can be most effective in making changes to enhance ...

Scientists use DNA from a museum specimen to study rarely observed type of killer whale

2013-06-19

In a scientific paper published in the journal Polar Biology, researchers report using DNA from tissues samples collected in 1955 to study what may be a new type of killer whale (Orcinus orca). In 1955, a pod of unusual-looking killer whales stranded on a New Zealand beach and a skeleton was saved in a museum in Wellington. Photographs were also taken but it was almost 50 years before this unique form of killer whale, characterized by a very small white eye-patch and bulbous forehead, was documented alive in the wild. Scientists have suspected for some time that ...

HIV-derived antibacterial shows promise against drug-resistant bacteria

2013-06-19

A team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh has developed antibacterial compounds, derived from the outer coating of HIV, that could be potential treatments for drug-resistant bacterial infections and appear to avoid generating resistance. These new agents are quite small, making them inexpensive and easy to manufacture. The research was published in the June 2013 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. The first of many probable applications will likely be the chronic bacterial infections in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients "that frequently ...

States vary widely on success rates for minorities in drug treatment programs

2013-06-19

A University of Iowa study reveals significant disparities between minority and white clients in success rates for completing substance abuse treatment programs. Moreover, these disparities vary widely from state to state. "Our findings suggest that for most states there's something amiss," says Stephan Arndt, Ph.D., UI professor of psychiatry and biostatistics. "There are strong racial and ethnic disparities for people in being able to complete substance abuse treatment programs successfully, and those disparities are something we need to set as targets to remove. "On ...

Early-life air pollution linked with childhood asthma in minorities, in study

2013-06-19

A research team led by UCSF scientists has found that exposure in infancy to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a component of motor vehicle air pollution, is strongly linked with later development of childhood asthma among African Americans and Latinos. The researchers said their findings indicate that air pollution might, in fact, be a cause of the disease, and they called for a tightening of U.S government standards for annual exposure to NO2. The study is reported online currently in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine ahead of print publication. ...

Moffitt Cancer Center researchers identify genetic variants predicting aggressive prostate cancers

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: