Researchers pinpoint gene in 70% of PCa cases

A gene that has been discovered activated in a majority of breast cancer cases has been found activated in 70% of prostate cancer tumors, report scientists at the George Washington University Medical Center, Washington.

Lead author Patricia Berg, PhD, and colleagues, found significant immunoreactivity of the BP1 was identified in approximately 70% of prostatic adenocarcinomas, whether the analysis was performed on tissue sections (50 cases) or tissue microarray platforms (123 cases). The findings compare to less than 5% BP1 activity in normal cells, according to the researchers, whose data will be published in Modern Pathology.

“BP1 is a new, potentially significant target for therapy,” Dr. Berg said. “It could be an important new diagnostic marker for prostate cancer and the other cancers in which it is expressed.”