Researchers have identified a biomarker for a cellular switch that accurately predicts which prostate cancer patients are likely to have their cancer recur or spread.
The Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Alberta in have been investigating a protein called CD151 that facilitates the migration of cancer cells.
In prostate cancer cell lines, they discovered that CD151 is free from its normal adhesion partner (integrin)- another protein that allows a cell to stick to the surrounding tissue. This form of CD151 called “CD151free” proved to be functionally important in cancer.
“It was a big surprise that some of this CD151 protein was now free of that partner and it turns out that it only occurs when a cancer is formed. What’s so novel about this discovery is we’re not talking about changing protein expression, which is what we traditionally see. We’re talking about a protein that changes its molecular state and detection of that molecular state is an indication of disease progression,” Andries Zijlstra, assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt, said.
In collaboration with Lewis and colleagues in Alberta, the group looked at tissue samples from 137 patients treated for prostate cancer in Canada over the past 12 years.
The team determined that if patients tested positive for CD151free their cancer recurred and spread earlier than patients without any detectable CD151free.
The study was published in journal Cancer Research. (ANI)