Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research and at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Research Institute, have discovered a genetic change that identifies a particularly aggressive form of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is different from many other cancers in that only certain types require treatment. This development could play a crucial role in the decision of whether or not to treat prostate cancer patients.
Prostate cancer is now the most common male cancer in the UK; each year, nearly 32,000 men are diagnosed and 10,000 men lose their lives to the disease.
In new research published last week in Oncogene, researchers have shown that prostate cancer patients with a particular genetic change have extremely poor survival rates. Prostate cancers commonly contain fusion of the TMPRSS2 and ERG genes. The new study shows that duplication of this change, called 2+Edel, is found in 6.6% of prostate cancers (equivalent to 1,800 UK prostate cancers patients each year). Patients with 2+Edel have only a 25% survival rate after eight years, compared to 90% for patient with no alterations in this region of DNA.
Read full story in Medical News Today
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