Researchers move closer to predicting aggressiveness of prostate cancer

Researchers have identified a genetic pattern that predicts the likelihood that prostate cancer will recur. The study, published in Lancet Oncology (doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(10)70295-3) found that men with the highest levels of expression of a set of 31 genes associated with cell cycle progression (CCP genes) were three times as likely to have recurrent prostate cancer as those with the lowest levels.

Jack Cuzick, professor of epidemiology at Queen Mary, University of London, and the study’s lead author, said, “Our findings have great potential. CCP genes are expressed at higher levels in actively growing cells, so we could be indirectly …