The Present and Future of Biomarkers in Prostate Cancer: Proteomics, Genomics, and Immunology Advancements

Abstract

Prostate cancer (PC) is the second most common form of cancer in men worldwide. Biomarkers have emerged as essential tools for treatment and assessment since the variability of disease behavior, the cost and diversity of treatments, and the related impairment of quality of life have given rise to a need for a personalized approach. High-throughput technology platforms in proteomics and genomics have accelerated the development of biomarkers. Furthermore, recent successes of several new agents in PC, including immunotherapy, have stimulated the search for predictors of response and resistance and have improved the understanding of the biological mechanisms at work. This review provides an overview of currently established biomarkers in PC, as well as a selection of the most promising biomarkers within these particular fields of development.

Genomic Scores are Independent of Disease Volume in Men with Favorable Risk Prostate Cancer: Implications for Choosing Men for Active Surveillance

“…1 Furthermore, despite long term evidence of the safety of active surveillance for most men with pure grade group (GrdGrp) 1 (i.e., Gleason score 3+3) tumors, 3,4 violation of the Epstein criteria based on tumor volume is used to exclude men against the recommendation for surveillance in some provider/institutional protocols. 5 The diagnostic inaccuracies of biopsy and traditional risk stratification measures create a need for improved methods to identify men at low risk of progression who may avoid initial therapy, a limitation that is being addressed by the growing use of genomic biomarkers [6][7][8] and multiparametic magnetic resonance imaging as diagnostic tools. 9,10 The OncotypeDX Genomic Prostate Score (GPS) TM , is a 17-gene quantitative RT PCR assay of selected genes from four cancer related molecular pathways (androgen signaling, cellular organization, stromal response, and cellular proliferation) 11 that has been analytically 11 and clinically 12,13 validated when measured on prostate biopsies to predict the presence of adverse pathology (GrdGrp 3 or higher or non-organ confined disease), as well as time to biochemical recurrence and metastasis.…”

Construction of a fusion plasmid containing the PSCA gene and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) and its anti-tumor effect in an animal model of prostate cancer

“…Prostate cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers, and is the second leading cause of cancer mortality among males in the United States of America (1). It has also become an increasingly important health problem in China.…”

Prostate cancer immunotherapy, particularly in combination with androgen deprivation or radiation treatment. Customized pharmacogenomic approaches to overcome immunotherapy cancer resistance

“…Nevertheless, that isn't exempting from the necessity of suitably choosing personalized epigenetic/gene profile-related antitumor immunotherapeutic strategies to avoid the lack of proper immune responses in mCRPC patients undergone immunotherapy (96)(97)(98)(99). Indeed, given that individual cancer cell genome mutated exome sequencing gene identification and consequent targeting pharmacogenomic approaches result to be advantageous to improve conventional treatments outcomes, such personalized diagnostic and therapeutic measures -even by genome editing supply, possibly resorting to CRISPR-CAS9 technique -should be taken into consideration also in the field of current immunotherapy developments to particularly support the vaccination-induced anti-tumor immune response (97,100,101).…”