Researchers have determined that a molecule produced by the bodys metabolism could be used to differentiate between benign prostate tissue vs. localized and metastatic prostate cancer.
They also found that this molecule, known as sarcosine, may be associated with prostate cancer invasiveness and aggressiveness. The findings were reported by researchers at the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, Ann Arbor, and were supported by the National Cancer Institute''s (NCI) Early Detection Research Network (EDRN). The research appears in the Feb. 12, 2009 issue of Nature. NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health.
"Current biomarkers for detection or progression of prostate cancer are not as precise as we would like. Therefore, a more accurate indicator of cancer is of great interest," said Sudhir Srivastava, Ph.D., chief of NCI's Cancer Biomarkers Research Group. "Sarcosine and some other select metabolites may be excellent indicators of cancer progression."
Multiple complex molecular events characterize cancer development and progression. Determining which molecular networks dictate whether cancer will be confined to the prostate or spread to other parts of the body could lead to the identification of critical biomarkers associated with prostate cancer invasion and aggressiveness.
Although many genes and proteins related to cancer have been extensively characterized by genomic and proteomic studies, little is known about metabolomic changes that mark a tumor's progression. Metabolomics, upon which this current finding is based, is the study of the unique chemical fingerprints that cellular processes leave behind, which can help scientists understand the makeup of a cell. One of the challenges that scientists currently face is integrating genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic information to give a more complete picture of living organisms and the diseases that afflict them.