Assessing Progression Risk in Cancer
Expression signatures may be useful for assessing greatest risk of
progression in prostate and other cancers

Date:
January 12, 2022
Source:
University of California - Irvine
Summary:
A molecular feature in prostate cancer, called endogenous
retroviral (ERV) RNA, has been found to have prognostic value and
also distinguish differences between men of African and European
or Middle Eastern ancestry, according to a new study. The team
also identified ERV expression signatures that may be useful for
identifying prostate cancer patients at greatest risk of progression
regardless of ancestry, which may also extend to progression in
other cancers.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A molecular feature in prostate cancer, called endogenous retroviral
(ERV) RNA, has been found to have prognostic value and also distinguish differences between men of African and European or Middle Eastern
ancestry, according to a study led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine. The team also identified ERV expression signatures
that may be useful for identifying prostate cancer patients at greatest
risk of progression regardless of ancestry, which may also extend to progression in other cancers.


========================================================================== Findings from the study, "Expression of Endogenous Retroviral RNA
in Prostate Tumors has Prognostic Value and Shows Differences among
Americans of African Versus European/Middle Eastern Ancestry," were
recently published in the online journal Cancers.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in men in the
U.S. and affects millions of men worldwide, but there are disparities
in its aggressiveness between different ancestries. There is a higher
burden among Black American men compared to White American men. Black
American patients are diagnosed at an earlier age and at a more advanced
stage than White American patients and being Black is an independent
predictor of disease relapse in those undergoing radical prostatectomy.

"Measuring ERV expression may have the potential to help physicians
predict which patients would most benefit from active surveillance
or radical therapy, and they also have the potential to be useful in
clinically relevant prognostic models for other cancers," said Farahnaz Rahmatpanah, PhD, assistant professor in residency in the Department
of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the UCI School of Medicine. "We
also believe that in the future, experiments to knock out or overexpress
ERVs in cells and tissue culture may further advance our understanding
of the consequences of differential regulation of ERVs among people of different geographical ancestry." To better understand the biological
basis for disparities, the team investigated two potential roles for ERVs
in prostate cancer. They discovered differences in ERV expression among prostate tumors which may be associated with variations in the mechanism
of progression between patients of primarily African versus primarily
European or Middle Eastern ancestry and determined the pathways where
these genes have important functions.

A biochemical recurrence risk-prediction model was developed using
clinical data and ERV transcripts, which outperformed prediction models
based on clinical data alone. The ERV expression signatures that
correlated with biochemical relapse among prostate cancer patients
of all ancestries were revealed, indicating that ERVs may be useful
for identifying patients at greatest risk of progression and that the
utility of ERV expression for studying prostate cancer progression may
extend to other cancers.

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health, American
Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_California_-_Irvine. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Vinay Kumar, Michael McClelland, James Nguyen, Gabriela De Robles,
Michael Ittmann, Patricia Castro, Dan Mercola, Zhenyu Jia, Farah
Rahmatpanah. Expression of Endogenous Retroviral RNA in Prostate
Tumors has Prognostic Value and Shows Differences among Americans
of African Versus European/Middle Eastern Ancestry. Cancers, 2021;
13 (24): 6347 DOI: 10.3390/cancers13246347 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220112121551.htm
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