NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - According to findings from a murine model of prostate cancer, loss of the retinoblastoma tumor suppresser gene Rb may be the first step in the development of the disease, researchers report in the September 1st issue of Cancer Research.
“The long-term goal is to identify the molecular events that distinguish patients with early-stage disease [who] are most likely to progress from those less likely to progress,” lead investigator Dr. Norman M. Greenberg, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, told Reuters Health.
Loss of heterozygosity of the Rb gene has been seen in as many as 60% of clinical cases of prostate cancer, Dr. Greenberg’s team notes.
The researchers found that conditional somatic deletion “of even a single Rb allele” in the prostate of mice caused focal hyperplasia. However, after 1 year, the lesions had not become malignant and were considered to represent an early stage of the disease.
“If we can determine with reasonable certainty that a patient only has reduced levels of Rb in the prostate, and no other changes, this would be consistent with early form of the disease and would indicate that aggressive therapy was likely not needed,” Dr. Greenberg continued.
“Developing a safe, minimally invasive test to monitor the genetic status of a patients’ prostate gland,” he concluded, “would be a great addition to our armamentarium. Providing aggressive therapy only to those [who] need it would also reduce health care costs.”
More information on this and other murine cancer models is available at:
Source: Cancer Res 2004;64. [ Google search on this article ]
MeSH Headings:Animal Diseases: Disease Models, Animal: Environment and Public Health: Genital Neoplasms, Male: Health: Health Occupations: Health Services Administration: Medicine: Neoplasms: Neoplasms by Site: Population Characteristics: Preventive Medicine: Prostatic Neoplasms: Public Health: Quality of Health Care: Specialties, Medical: Urogenital Neoplasms: Epidemiologic Factors: Causality: Genes, Retinoblastoma: Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation: Biological Sciences: Diseases: Health CareCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
