Researchers led by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) have identified two genes that promote the formation of prostate tumours.
The findings, published in the Nature journal Oncogene, could pave the way for new treatment approaches that improve outcomes for prostate cancer patients.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men globally, with more than 52,000 cases diagnosed in the UK every year.
The disease has already been linked with multiple genetic mutations, but it has been difficult to distinguish between those that are directly responsible for its development and progression, and those that occur simultaneously but do not give the cancer cells any growth advantages.
Funded by Prostate Cancer UK, the ICR team focused on genes involved in the PI3K-AKT pathway, which is frequently mutated in prostate cancer. Although the most common mutation, in a gene called Pten, had already been identified before the study, the possible contributions of other genetic alterations had not yet been assessed.
Using samples from mice and, later, mini versions of the prostate created in the lab, the team found that alterations to both the Bzw2 and Eif5a2 genes activated the PI3K-AKT pathway and promoted growth of the cancer.
The correlation between increased Eif5a2 expression and activation of the PI3K-AKT pathway was then confirmed through the analysis of two databases of human prostate cancer samples.
First author Jeff Francis, senior scientific officer in the development and cancer group in the division of cancer biology at the ICR, said: “This study gave us the chance to investigate the early stage of prostate cancer, which has been somewhat overlooked in the research.
“Eif5a2 has been implicated in previous studies focusing on different types of cancer, suggesting that its involvement could be a common theme in oncology. As a result, we hope that this work will be useful for the cancer research community more broadly.”
The results come less than two months after a team of ICR researchers found a way to predict how long prostate cancer patients will respond to the PARP inhibitor olaparib.
The institute also recently discovered that prostate cancer patients with high levels of BCL2, a protein responsible for preventing cell death, have significantly poorer outcomes compared to those without.