Blood marker may predict the spread of prostate cancer
Researchers report finding a new blood biomarker that enables close to 98% accuracy in predicting the spread of prostate cancer to regional lymph nodes.
When cancer spreads beyond a solid tumor, it often does so at a microscopic level that typically cannot be identified by conventional imaging methods such as CT scans. The new blood test measures levels of endoglin, a plasma biomarker that has been previously shown to predict the spread of colon and breast cancer. In this study, researchers concluded for the first time that endoglin could help predict whether a patient’s prostate cancer would spread beyond the solid tumor site into their lymph nodes.
“For prostate cancer, we have hit the limit of our ability to classify risk in these patients before initial surgery. We currently use prostate specific antigen, Gleason grade and a rectal exam, but the predictive value of those three tests is inadequate for predicting what cancers will spread. Conventional imaging modalities used for clinical staging in prostate cancer are inadequate to detect small but clinically significant lymph node metastases.” said study author Shahrokh F. Shariat, MD, chief urology resident at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
This study is published in the March 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
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