Methods for diagnosing and treating prostate cancer

Abstract

The invention is directed to a method of inhibiting prostate cancer cell proliferation using a substance that inhibits the activity of soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC) protein. The invention also is directed to methods of diagnosing and prognosticating prostate cancer in a subject by evaluating sAC gene expression or sAC protein production in the subject.

Description

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT[0001]This invention was made with Government support under Grant Number NCI K08 CA 160657 awarded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The Government has certain rights in this invention.INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY[0002]Incorporated by reference in its entirety herein is a computer-readable nucleotide / amino acid sequence listing submitted concurrently herewith and identified as follows: One 4,225 Byte ASCII (Text) file named “715739_ST25.TXT,” created on Dec. 11, 2013.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy and the second leading cause of death among men in the U.S. (Li et al., Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 1704: 87-102 (2004)). The National Cancer Institute (NCI) estimates that in 2013, over 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed, and over 29,000 men will die of prostate cancer in the United States. The prostate-specific antigen or...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This patent describes a method for inhibiting the growth of prostate cancer cells by targeting a specific protein called soluble adenylyl cyclase (sAC). The patent also provides a method for diagnosing prostate cancer by measuring the level of sAC gene expression or protein production in a sample of prostate cancer cells. Finally, the patent suggests a method for selecting an appropriate treatment option for prostate cancer based on the individual's prognosis.

Problems solved by technology

While the PSA test has resulted in the majority of prostate cancer cases being diagnosed in asymptomatic men (Mettlin et al., Cancer, 83(8): 1679-1684 (1998a); Mettlin et al., Cancer, 82(2): 249-251 (1998b); Humphrey et al., J. Urol., 155: 816-820 (1996); and Grossfeld et al., Epidemiol. Rev., 23(1): 173-180 (2001)), the PSA test suffers from poor specificity, which can be as low as 33% when a PSA cut-off level of 2.6 ng / mL is used (Thompson et al., N. Engl. J. Med., 350: 2239-2246 (2004)), even though the sensitivity can be as high as 83%.

The poor specificity of the PSA test is a direct result of increased secretion of PSA in other diseases of the prostate, such as benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis.

Over 1 million needle biopsies of prostates are performed each year at a cost of about $1,500 each and much discomfort to the patient.

However, less than 200,000 of these result in a diagnosis of prostate cancer.

These markers, however, lack the specificity needed for consistently reliable diagnoses.

Similarly, prognostic biomarkers such as the TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion, PTEN deletion, and SPINK1 overexpression also lack the specificity to assess a wide range of prostate cancers, leaving a significant number of prostate cancers without further prognostic information apart from calculating a cancer's Gleason score.

Currently there are no known biomarkers that can indicate prostate cancers that have invaded into the periprostatic soft tissue.

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