They said: “Our findings are clinically significant because they will assist urologists in recommending different treatment approaches for those men who are classified as being in low, intermediate or high-risk categories according to conventional clinical criteria”.
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Prostate cancer is unusual because while many men may have the disease, it can grow so slowly it might not cause any problems and the patient eventually dies of something else. This analysis was better at predicting which tumors were most likely to be aggressive than the tests doctors now use, but the findings must be confirmed with a larger sample size.
The study, authored by Doctor Alastair Lamb at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, features in the EBioMedicine journal.
Prostate cancer can be one of five diseases, according to research set to be a game changer in the fight against the condition.
Researchers at Addenbrooke’s, Cambridge, UK are hopeful that their investigation into the genetic basis of prostate tumours could lead to greater precision in diagnosis and, ultimately, better targeted treatments.
The researchers looked at samples of healthy and cancerous prostate tissue from over 250 men.
It estimates the lifetime risk for black men of dying of prostate cancer at approximately one in 12. Last year, we worked with NHS England on a “Be Clear on Cancer – Prostate Cancer” awareness-raising pilot that headlined the one in four risk stat for black men in six London Boroughs.
Five different recipes of prostate cancer have been identified, with major implications for the way the disease is treated. Thus, being able to target each of the five types of prostate cancer individually could result in improved quality of life and more efficient treatment plans for each individual patient. They said this information could be “used for early detection of aggressive cases in a clinical setting, and inform treatment decisions”.
That’s what makes the ability to identify particular types of prostate cancer and their possible level of aggressiveness so important, experts say.
These include blood tests for prostate cancer, skin checks by a specialist nurse for skin cancer, and tuition in self-examination and a breast examination for breast cancer.
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As a result, researchers can now work towards finding or developing therapies that can be specifically tailored to each type of prostate cancer, which will then give them best chance at treating the different cancers.
