Prostate Cancer (CaP) is rapidly becoming a worldwide health issue.
While CaP mortality has decreased in recent years, coincident with the widespread use of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) screening, it remains the most common solid tumor in men and is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. The frequency of CaP is growing not only in western cultures, but also its incidence is dramatically increasing in eastern nations. Recently, examination of data from long-term trials and follow up has cast a shadow on the effectiveness of employing PSA as a primary screening tool for CaP. In this review, we not only summarize opinions from this examination and synthesize recommendations from several groups that suggest strategies for utilizing PSA as a tool, but also call for research into biomarkers for CaP diagnosis and disease progression. We also describe our recent work that identified a smooth muscle contractile protein in prostate epithelia, namely smooth muscle gamma actin, and indicate the potential for this molecule as a new unique footprint and as a CaP marker.
Written by:
Fillmore RA, Kojima C, Johnson C, Kolcun G, Dangott LJ, Zimmer WE. Are you the author?
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast, Long Beach MS 39560, USA; Department of Medical Physiology, College of Medicine, Texas A&M Health Science Center, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-1114, USA; Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, College of Medicine, TX 77843, USA; Interdisciplinary Faculty of Toxicology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843; Faculty of Genetics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Reference: Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2014 Jun 13. pii: 1535370214539091.
doi: 10.1177/1535370214539091
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 24928864
UroToday.com Prostate Cancer Section
