Abstract
Biomarkers are important for early detection of cancer, prognosis, response prediction, and detection of residual or relapsing disease. Special attention has been given to diagnostic markers for prostate cancer since it is thought that early detection and surgery might reduce prostate cancer-specific mortality. The use of prostate-specific antigen, PSA (KLK3), has been debated on the base of cohort studies that show that its use in preventive screenings only marginally influences mortality from prostate cancer. Many groups have identified alternative or additional markers, among which PCA3, in order to detect early prostate cancer through screening, to distinguish potentially lethal from indolent prostate cancers, and to guide the treatment decision. The large number of markers proposed has led us to the present study in which we analyze these indicators for their diagnostic and prognostic potential using publicly available genomic data. We identified 380 markers from literature analysis on 20,000 articles on prostate cancer markers. The most interesting ones appeared to be claudin 3 (CLDN3) and alpha-methysacyl-CoA racemase highly expressed in prostate cancer and filamin C (FLNC) and keratin 5 with highest expression in normal prostate tissue. None of the markers proposed can compete with PSA for tissue specificity. The indicators proposed generally show a great variability of expression in normal and tumor tissue or are expressed at similar levels in other tissues. Those proposed as prognostic markers distinguish cases with marginally different risk of progression and appear to have a clinically limited use. We used data sets sampling 152 prostate tissues, data sets with 281 prostate cancers analyzed by microarray analysis and a study of integrated genomics on 218 cases to develop a multigene score. A multivariate model that combines several indicators increases the discrimination power but does not add impressively to the information obtained from Gleason scoring. This analysis of 10 years of marker research suggests that diagnostic and prognostic testing is more difficult in prostate cancer than in other neoplasms and that we must continue to search for better candidates.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10555-013-9470-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death for males in the USA
Introduction of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) [3] has led to a drastic increase in the early detection of prostate cancer resulting in an increased reported incidence, in part due to indolent cancers
Articles published in journals not indexed in the Journal Citation Reports and articles reporting on markers that are not measured as mRNA or protein expression were omitted from further analyses
Summary
If the current prostate-specific antigen-based screening schemes will be applied in the future, it can be estimated that 16.2 % of American men alive today will be diagnosed with the neoplasm and approximately 3 % will die of it. The increasing incidence is evident for the period between 1980 and 1995 in affluent countries and at present in emerging countries [2]. This trend is probably at least in part due to the introduction of prostate cancer screening using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a marker. Introduction of PSA [3] has led to a drastic increase in the early detection of prostate cancer resulting in an increased reported incidence, in part due to indolent cancers
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
