BiotechMashup

Researchers have found that urokine plasminogen activator (uPA) may be instrumental in the early stages of metastasis. Prostate cancer, which develops most frequently in men over fifty, is the most common type of cancer of men in the United States. Most prostate cancer-related deaths are due to advanced disease, which often results in metastatic spread to other organs.

(University of Colorado Denver) When caught in its early stages, prostate cancer is treatable in most cases. But once it reaches a critical threshold, the disease becomes largely resistant to current treatments. The National Cancer Institute recently awarded a team of cancer biologists $9.55 million over five years to define the molecular changes that occur as prostate cancer progresses to the therapy-resistant state.

Researchers have discovered a previously unsuspected link between two different genetic pathways which suppress the growth of cancer tumors. This breakthrough, they say, could lead to new treatments for some of the deadliest and most intractable forms of cancer; including prostate cancer, brain cancer and melanoma.

Researchers have identified a potential target to treat an aggressive type of prostate cancer. The target, a gene called SPINK1, could be to prostate cancer what HER2 has become for breast cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in men, and diet is considered one of the most important controllable risk factors for inflammation and prostate diseases including benign prostatic hyperplsia (BPH), prostatitis, and prostate cancer. A new study sheds light on the mechanisms of the deleterious effects of a high fat diet on the prostate.

New research studied the association between prostate-specific antigen levels and prostate size and found that routine annual evaluation of prostate growth is not necessarily a predictor for the development of prostate cancer. However, the study suggests that if a man's PSA level is rising quickly, a prostate biopsy is reasonable to determine if he has prostate cancer.

In a finding with potentially major implications for identifying a viral cause of prostate cancer, researchers have reported that a type of virus known to cause leukemia and sarcomas in animals has been found for the first time in malignant human prostate cancer cells.

(Centenary Institute) Researchers at the Centenary Institute in Sydney have discovered a potential future treatment for prostate cancer -- through starving the tumour cells of an essential nutrient they need to grow rapidly. Their work, with human cells grown in the lab, reveals targets for drugs that could slow the progress of early and late stage prostate cancer. The research has been funded by the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Movember.

(University of Utah Health Sciences) In a finding with potentially major implications for identifying a viral cause of prostate cancer, researchers at the University of Utah and Columbia University medical schools have reported that a type of virus known to cause leukemia and sarcomas in animals has been found for the first time in malignant human prostate cancer cells.