Genetic test predicts prostate cancer recurrence

A new study has confirmed that a genetic test that measures cell cycle progression (CCP) can be a useful tool for predicting which patients will have prostate cancer recurrence, especially when combined with existing information from laboratory and pathology tests.

The CCP score provides a biomarker that eventually might help guide decisions about whether to pursue additional treatment after surgery, such as radiation therapy, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco say.

For the study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (2013; 31:1428-34), the authors used the UCSF Urologic Oncology Database to access tissue samples and medical records from men who had undergone prostatectomy at UCSF and been followed for at least 5 years after surgery.

A commercial laboratory operated by Myriad Genetics, the company that developed the test, conducted genetic analysis of the tissue samples to determine a CCP score in 413 patients. The authors then examined how well the CCP score predicted which men had a recurrence of their disease after surgery.

The CCP score was also evaluated with the Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment post-surgery score (CAPRA-S). Investigators found that the CAPRA-S and CCP together were more useful than either alone, and that adding the CCP was especially helpful in men who appeared to have low-risk disease based on the CAPRA-S score alone.

In addition to the 413 patients in the UCSF group, the researchers also looked at the predictive results of the CCP combined with the CAPRA-S in a group of patients previously studied at the Scott and White Clinic in Georgetown, TX, for whom longer-term follow-up was available. The combination of the CCP and CAPRA-S again accurately predicted recurrence in this group.

“One of the big challenges in prostate cancer is knowing when and how aggressively to treat patients,” said lead author Matthew R. Cooperberg, MD, MPH, of UCSF. “Biomarkers such as the CCP can provide valuable data to guide treatment decisions.”

The study was funded by Myriad Genetics and by grants from the Department of Defense and National Cancer Institute.

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