ROCHESTER, Minn., March 27 (UPI) -- Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota believe they are on track to find a more reliable biomarker for prostate cancer.
"This is good news in an area where our ability to diagnose and predict has previously been less than stellar," said Krishna Donkena, a urologic researcher. "Our only tool is the PSA test, which has little predictive value. These findings move us much closer to a more accurate test."
Donkena's team examined 62 cancerous tissue samples and 36 benign ones, looking for genes where hypermethylation -- DNA modification with changes in sequence -- could be linked to prostate cancer. They found that one gene, PDLIM4, had hypermethylation that could serve as an effective sensitivity marker, accurately detecting prostate cancer 95 percent of the time.
When measurement of that gene was combined with a previously known one, GSTP1, the detection rate improved to 98 percent.
