UniSA researchers have identified three latest biomarkers for prostate cancer to assist discover and differentiate potentially aggressive cases of the disease which kills greater than 300,000 men annually.
Image Credit: University of South Australia
A world team of scientists led by UniSA Professor of Molecular Medicine Doug Brooks has made the breakthrough, which assists pathologists when visualizing prostate cancer in patient tissue samples.
The brand new biomarkers, when used together, will assist clinicians in determining which patients require immediate, radical treatment in comparison with those that need close monitoring.
With a couple of million men diagnosed with prostate cancer worldwide annually, the research breakthrough is critical.
The UniSA-based team has collaborated with the Australian company Envision Sciences on the technology to enhance patient management and treatment outcomes.
“It’s anticipated it will result in long-term improvements in the best way prostate cancer is diagnosed and graded,” Prof Brooks says.
“The biomarkers are remarkably sensitive and specific in accurately visualizing the progress of the cancer and confirming its grade. This discovery has led to the business development of a test designed to find out how advanced and aggressive the cancer is and whether immediate treatment is required.”
Envision Sciences, which funded the event and translation of the technology at UniSA, has signed a commercialization agreement with the most important tissue diagnostic pathology company within the US, Quest Diagnostics, to take the technology into clinical practice.
Pending a successful final result within the US, it is predicted that clinical trials using the progressive technology will likely be undertaken in Australia.
Describing the breakthrough as “life saving,” UniSA Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Enterprise Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO says the partnership between UniSA and Envision Sciences is an exciting development in cancer research.
This technology represents a shift in the best way clinicians can grade and predict the aggressiveness of prostate cancer. We stay up for seeing the difference it makes in coming years.”
Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO, Deputy Vice Chancellor Research and Enterprise, UniSA
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Journal reference:
Logan, J. M., et al. (2023). Prediction of Prostate Cancer Biochemical and Clinical Reoccurrence Is Improved by IHC-Assisted Grading Using Appl1, Sortilin and Syndecan-1. Cancers. doi.org/10.3390/cancers15123215.