A More Accurate Screening Test For Prostate Cancer?

Zetter, a researcher in the Vascular Biology Program at Children's, is interested in the role of cell motility -- cells' ability to move and travel -- in helping cancers to metastasize. He became especially interested in thymosin ß15, a protein that stimulates cell migration and promotes metastasis in prostate cancer. Unlike PSA, it is produced almost exclusively by cancer cells, and is detectable in urine.

In this study, Zetter and colleagues compared thymosin ß15 levels in urine samples from 121 men with prostate cancer, 15 men with other genitourinary cancers (kidney or bladder cancer), 81 men with non-malignant prostate disease (such as prostatitis), 73 men with other non-malignant urologic diseases (such as urinary tract infection), and 52 healthy men who served as controls. Thymosin ß15 levels were elevated in men with aggressive or untreated prostate cancer, but normal or near-normal in healthy men and men with other genitourinary diseases. Men receiving androgen deprivation therapy (an indication they had aggressive prostate cancer) were 12 times more likely than the healthy controls to have elevated thymosin ß15.

Notably, nearly half of cancer patients whose PSA levels were considered normal tested positive for thymosin ß15. Conversely, many men with other genitourinary diseases had elevated PSAs, but normal thymosin ß15 values. When PSA and thymosin ß15 were combined, the combination detected prostate cancer more often than PSA testing alone, with far fewer false-positives.

Zetter, who is also Children's Chief Scientific Officer, is now following the long-term outcomes of men with prostate cancer to determine thymosin ß15's usefulness as a prognostic predictor in combination with PSA testing.

The Vascular Biology Program at Children's is also actively studying urinary markers for other cancers. In a small pilot study, Dr. Marsha Moses and postdoctoral fellow Dr. Roopali Roy recently found that a compound called ADAM 12, when detected in urine, is an early marker of breast cancer. Another group of markers will soon enter formal clinical trials in adults with prostate, breast, bladder, lung, and colon cancer.

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Children's Hospital Boston is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults for 136 years. More than 500 scientists, including eight members of the National Academy of Sciences, nine members of the Institute of Medicine and 10 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Children's research community. Founded in 1869 as a 20-bed hospital for children, Children's Hospital Boston today is a 325-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Children's also is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more information about the hospital visit: http://www.childrenshospital.org/research/.