Blood-Derived Biomarkers of Diagnosis, Prognosis and Therapy Response in Prostate Cancer Patients

Abstract

Prostate cancer is among the most frequent cancers in men worldwide. Despite the fact that multiple therapeutic alternatives are available for its treatment, it is often discovered in an advanced stage as a metastatic disease. Prostate cancer screening is based on physical examination of prostate size and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level in the blood as well as biopsy in suspect cases. However, these markers often fail to correctly identify the presence of cancer, or their positivity might lead to overdiagnosis and consequent overtreatment of an otherwise silent non-progressing disease. Moreover, these markers have very limited if any predictive value regarding therapy response or individual risk for therapy-related toxicities. Therefore, novel, optimally liquid biopsy-based (blood-derived) markers or marker panels are needed, which have better prognostic and predictive value than the ones currently used in the everyday routine. In this review the role of circulating tumour cells, extracellular vesicles and their microRNA content, as well as cellular and soluble immunological and inflammation- related blood markers for prostate cancer diagnosis, prognosis and prediction of therapy response is discussed. A special emphasis is placed on markers predicting response to radiotherapy and radiotherapy-related late side effects.

Target Heterogeneity in Oncology: The Best Predictor for Differential Response to Radioligand Therapy in Neuroendocrine Tumors and Prostate Cancer

“…A similar approach of using ‘omics’-based prognostication can also be used in prostate cancers, wherein the entire fulcrum of management is based on the biochemical value of PSA. Dysregulation of miRNAs (miRs) has been reported in prostate malignancy from early- to advanced stage and castration resistant disease progression [ 41 ]. Among differentially expressed miRNAs, most interestingly, the expression of miR-301 was upregulated in early-stage and CRPC progression, and this high expression of miR-301 was consistent in both serum and tumor tissue in prostate cancer patients compared to patients with benign prostate hyperplasia.…”

A Unified Transcriptional, Pharmacogenomic, and Gene Dependency Approach to Decipher the Biology, Diagnostic Markers, and Therapeutic Targets Associated with Prostate Cancer Metastasis

“…However, its reliability is questionable because of the low specificity (high false-positive rate) resulting from the test [9][10][11]. This prompted the search for alternative ELISA-based tests to detect more reliable serum-or urine-based markers [62,63]. Recently proposed is detecting two glycoproteins (thrombospondin 1 or THBS1, and cathepsin D or CTSD) in the blood.…”

The Influence of miRNAs on Radiotherapy Treatment in Prostate Cancer – A Systematic Review

“…So, miRNA expression provides new insights if treatment is being the most appropriate, and if not, treatment must be changed or adjusted (Figure 4). Regarding side effects, changes in miRNAs expression can be used to overcome these toxicities or to understand their signs before the need to interrupt the therapy with a possible impairment in therapeutics results (29)(30)(31).…”