Plasma Neuroendocrine Markers in Patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and Prostatic Carcinoma

Abstract

Future studies of plasma neuropeptide levels should confirm whether these parameters can be used as prognostic markers during late progression of prostatic carcinoma or for the selection of patients suitable for evaluation of new antineoplastic drugs to be active against neuroendocrine tumors.

Circulating neuroendocrine markers in patients with prostate carcinoma

“…These data are consistent with previous findings showing that plasma CgA better reflects the NE features of PC than serum NSE. 5,13,21,22 The 45% of patients with advanced disease (Stage D2) and supranormal CgA levels is close to the 50% of immunohistochemical NE differentiation originally described by Di Sant'Agnese et al 4 Plasma CgA therefore is a reliable analyte for revealing the NE phenotype in patients with advanced PC. Conversely, its diagnostic role is limited in nonmetastatic disease, conceivably due to the fact that the number of NE cells is not enough to raise the circulating levels.…”

“…13 Among the eight patients with serum PSA within normal values, five had elevated CgA and four had elevated NSE. This finding suggests that NE markers may complement the PSA assay in selected cases of clinical suspected PC.…”

“…However, it is interesting to note that one study is affirmatory for the presence of androgen receptors in these particular cells. 12 As pointed out by Cussenot et al, 13 the detection of NE markers in the blood of patients with PC constitutes a global indicator of significant NE differentiation either of the primary tumor or its metastases.…”

Increased expression of preprotachykinin-I and neurokinin receptors in human breast cancer cells: Implications for bone marrow metastasis

“…Neuroendocrine functions are associated with the development of breast cancer (BC), the second leading cause of cancer death (6,7). The molecular pathways within the neuroendocrine system that lead to BC are complex and need dissection.…”

La chromogranine A dans le cancer de la prostate métastatique

“…L'immunohistochimie a été utilisée en premier lieu dans le carcinome prostatique, certains travaux ont permis de corréler le marquage cellulaire neuroendocrine avec une hormonorésistance et un pronostic défavorable, cependant l'ensemble des résultats publiés jusqu'à présent est très contradictoire [4,7,[10][11][12][13]. Le déve-loppement d'une méthode de dosage sérique de la CgA a permis une première approche comparative avec le dosage du PSA total (tPSA), avec des dosages sériés au cours de l'évo-lution du cancer.…”