Researchers discover genetic fingerprint identifying how prostate cancer spreads
TORONTO — Canadian researchers have identified the genetic signature that explains why up to 30 per cent of men with potentially curable localized prostate cancer develop aggressive disease that spreads beyond the gland after treatment with surgery or radiation.
The discovery means doctors may be able to predict at an early stage whether a prostate tumour will become aggressive and potentially deadly, allowing for more personalized treatment from the moment a man is diagnosed, said co-principal investigator Dr. Robert Bristow, a clinician-scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto.
“We used specialized state-of-the-art DNA sequencing techniques to focus on the genetics of prostate cancers to better understand what is so different from one man’s disease to another man’s disease,” said Bristow.
“These genetic fingerprints had high accuracy in being able to discern those men who do well with surgery or radiotherapy and those men that already have early spread of their disease outside the prostate gland,” he said.