Emerging proteomics biomarkers and prostate cancer burden in Africa

Henry A Adeola,Jonathan M Blackburn,Luiz F Zerbini,Timothy R Rebbeck

doi:10.18632/oncotarget.16568

Abstract

Various biomarkers have emerged via high throughput omics-based approaches for use in diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of prostate cancer. Many of these have yet to be demonstrated as having value in routine clinical practice. Moreover, there is a dearth of information on validation of these emerging prostate biomarkers within African cohorts, despite the huge burden and aggressiveness of prostate cancer in men of African descent. This review focusses of the global landmark achievements in prostate cancer proteomics biomarker discovery and the potential for clinical implementation of these biomarkers in Africa. Biomarker validation processes at the preclinical, translational and clinical research level are discussed here, as are the challenges and prospects for the evaluation and use of novel proteomic prostate cancer biomarkers.

Highlights

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in men globally [1]
This review has demonstrated the prospects for discovery and validation of potential biomarkers in Africa
Being a continent with a huge burden of cancer and mostly populated by low and middle income countries (LMIC), several challenges have been identified that militate against the routine application of proteomics to PCa research

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the leading causes of cancer death in men globally [1]. It is known that disease conditions such as cancer are able to stimulate humoral immune response leading to the generation of auto-antibodies [78]; and this has been demonstrated in many different human cancers, including renal [79], colorectal [80], lung [81], and PCa [82,83,84,85,86] These autoantibodies generated, have potential theranostic utilities for cancer diagnosis and therapeutic vaccine target development. Both urine and blood are very attractive preclinical biomarker sources for PCa in Africa. PCa proteomics has been carried out in African-American populations

Method used

Prospective screening

Findings

CONCLUSIONS