Biomarkers in Prostate Cancer Epidemiology

Abstract

Understanding the etiology of a disease such as prostate cancer may help in identifying populations at high risk, timely intervention of the disease, and proper treatment. Biomarkers, along with exposure history and clinical data, are useful tools to achieve these goals. Individual risk and population incidence of prostate cancer result from the intervention of genetic susceptibility and exposure. Biochemical, epigenetic, genetic, and imaging biomarkers are used to identify people at high risk for developing prostate cancer. In cancer epidemiology, epigenetic biomarkers offer advantages over other types of biomarkers because they are expressed against a person's genetic background and environmental exposure, and because abnormal events occur early in cancer development, which includes several epigenetic alterations in cancer cells. This article describes different biomarkers that have potential use in studying the epidemiology of prostate cancer. We also discuss the characteristics of an ideal biomarker for prostate cancer, and technologies utilized for biomarker assays. Among epigenetic biomarkers, most reports indicate GSTP1 hypermethylation as the diagnostic marker for prostate cancer; however, NKX2-5, CLSTN1, SPOCK2, SLC16A12, DPYS, and NSE1 also have been reported to be regulated by methylation mechanisms in prostate cancer. Current challenges in utilization of biomarkers in prostate cancer diagnosis and epidemiologic studies and potential solutions also are discussed.

Apoptotic effects of proteasome and histone deacetylase inhibitors in prostate cancer cell lines

“…Despite the development of effective radiotherapy and chemotherapy methods, prostate cancer cells occasionally show resistance to treatment. Thus, the apoptotic potential of prostate cancer cells is expected to increase with the variety of agents that are being tested (Ramsay and Leung, 2009;Verma et al, 2011).…”

Proton therapy- the modality of choice for future radiation therapy management of Prostate Cancer?

“…With the implementation of PSA screening, an increasing number of Pca cases are being diagnosed [1] with PT playing a major role in its management. PR is considered one of the more advanced radiotherapy options in the treatment of Pca patients in recent decades, of which treatment planning and delivery techniques continue to evolve and improve by reducing the dose delivered to healthy tissues [2].…”

Probing for DNA methylation with a voltammetric DNA detector

“…2 African-American men are twice as likely to die of PCa, while it occurs least often among native Asian men. 3 …”

“…Because hypermethylation of these CpG islands is not present in normal cells, CpG hypermethylation can be used as a biomarker for the diagnosis and detection of prostate cancer. 3,6 …”