WASHINGTON, DC—New biomarkers for urologic cancers should help clinicians not only diagnose prostate and bladder cancers but also help them distinguish between indolent and aggressive disease. Urologists and oncologists learned about 3 new biomarkers for prostate cancer at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Urological Association, held this week in Washington, DC.
Helfand and colleagues pinpointed 3 alleles on chromosome 8q24 associated with tumor aggressiveness. In total, 253 of 1376 men had aggressive disease. Of these, the risk allele rs1690294 was identified in 44.2%, rs445114 in 93.7%, and rs6983267 in 83.0%. Aggressive disease was defined as pathologic Gleason score >4+3 and/or pathologic tumor stage >IIIb.
Robert and colleagues identified the rationale for, and possible solution to, the high number of false-negative results of urine assays for PCA3. By combining a test for PCA3 with one for TMPRSS2:ERG, they found that 57% of the false-negatives were corrected. The combined test also exhibit higher sensitivity and greater accuracy than tests for each gene alone.
Nakayama and colleagues showed that patients with polymorphisms in CYP17A1 are at higher risk of disease progression while on androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). At a median of 43 months of follow-up, statistical significance was observed for 4 polymorphisms: rs743572 A > G (P = .01; odds ration [OR], 0.30; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.12-0.79), rs6162 G >A (P = .01; OR, 3.33; 95% CI, 1.27-8.72), rs6163 C > A (P = .01; OR, 3.33; 95% CI, 1.27-8.72), and rs1004467 T > C (P = .04; OR, 2.43; 95%CI, 1.03-5.73).