Prostate biopsies from black men express higher levels of aggressive disease biomarkers than prostate biopsies from white men - Abstract

Division of Urologic Surgery, Department of Surgery, and the Duke Prostate Center, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA.

Urology Section, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA.

 

 

A wide array of biomarkers is being investigated as predictors of prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis and recurrence. We compared the expression of a small panel of these biomarkers as a function of race among men undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP). Prostate needle biopsy specimens from 131 patients treated with RP at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center were hematoxylin and eosin stained and immunofluorescent assayed for α-methylacyl CoA racemase (AMACR), androgen receptor (AR) and Ki67. Proprietary image analysis was used to identify six biometric feature combinations that were significantly associated with progression in a previous study. Analysis of population characteristics, stratified by race, was performed using rank-sum and χ(2)-test. The effect of race on expression of these biomarker profiles was analyzed using multivariate linear regression. All six biomarker features were expressed at higher levels in black men than white men, with Norm AR (P=0.006) and Ki67 (P=0.02) attaining statistical significance. On multivariate analysis, all markers were expressed at higher levels in black men, with Norm AR (P=0.001), Ki67 (P=0.007) and Ki67/lum (P=0.022) reaching significance. These data support the hypothesis that PCa may be biologically more aggressive among black men.

Written by:
Kim HS, Moreira DM, Jayachandran J, Gerber L, Bañez LL, Vollmer RT, Lark AL, Donovan MJ, Powell D, Khan FM, Freedland SJ.   Are you the author?

Reference: Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 2011 Apr 26. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1038/pcan.2011.18

PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21519348

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