Genetic prostate cancer variants as biomarkers of disease progression

Objective

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males in Europe, causing over 87,000 deaths in 2006. Early diagnosis and treatment are key factors in determining survival but screening methods based on the commonly-used PSA blood test have low specificity and result in excessive treatment of localized lesions that might never progress to symptomatic cancer. Biomarkers that help determine which of the early stage tumors will remain confined to the prostate and which will progress to an invasive, aggressive form of the disease are urgently needed. Using genome-wide association analysis, we identified 4 distinct common genetic variants that increase the risk of prostate cancer, some of which may have a stronger association with severe disease. Furthermore, by comparing the genotypes of patients with aggressive disease to genotypes of those with a more indolent form, we have identified a large number of candiate markers of disease severity. Here, we plan to take all these inherited variants and test the hypothesis that they can serve as biomarkers for prostate cancer prognosis and outcome. In addition, we have selected two of these variants for genomic and functional studies. Specifically, we will 1. Collect DNA and clinical data from over 8000 prostate cancer cases in four European populations (Iceland, the Netherlands, Romania, UK) 2. Test the utility of inherited prostate cancer risk variants as biomarkers of disease severity, progression and outcome 3. Start dissecting the biological mechanisms that cause increased prostate cancer risk The expected outcome of the project is a) A new prognostic test that predicts clinical outcomes for localized prostate cancer more accurately than existing methods. b) Documentation of the association of genetic risk variants to clinical parameters and outcomes. c) Increased understanding of carcinogenesis of the prostate which may lead to the identification of additional biomarkers or therapeutic targets.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

• medical and health sciences clinical medicine oncology prostate cancer
• natural sciences biological sciences genetics DNA
• engineering and technology medical engineering medical laboratory technology laboratory samples analysis

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

• biomarker
• genetics
• predicitive markers

Programme(s)

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• FP7-HEALTH - Specific Programme "Cooperation": Health

Topic(s)

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• HEALTH-2007-2.4.1-2 - Translating clinical ’omics’-technology (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) into innovative cancer biomarkers aiding in early diagnosis, prognosis and treatment selection of cancer patients

Call for proposal

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FP7-HEALTH-2007-A
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research project

Coordinator

Participants (5)