BJUI Spotlights Study by Emory Prostate Cancer Researchers as Article of the Week
June 2017
"Evaluation of a 24-gene signature for prognosis of metastatic events and prostate cancer-specific mortality," first author Kathryn Pellegrini, MD, senior author Carlos Moreno, was chosen by the British Journal of Urology International (BJUI) as its article of the week of June 12, 2017. Dr. Pelligrini is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Urology, and Dr. Moreno is an associate professor in the Emory departments of pathology and laboratory medicine and frequent collaborator on prostate cancer studies with various Emory Urology faculty. Emory Urology chair Martin Sanda, MD, and senior biostatistician Datta Patil were among the study's coauthors.
The objective of the study was to determine the prognostic potential of a 24-gene signature, Sig24, for identifying patients with prostate cancer who are at risk of developing metastases or of prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM) after radical prostatectomy (RP). Sig24 scores were calculated from previously collected gene expression microarray data from the Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic. The performance of Sig24 was determined using time-dependent c-index analysis, Cox proportional hazards regression, and Kaplan–Meier survival analysis.
The researchers found that higher Sig24 scores were significantly associated with higher pathological Gleason scores in all three cohorts. Analysis of the Mayo Clinic cohort, which included time-to-event information, indicated that patients with high Sig24 scores also had a higher risk of developing metastasis (hazard ratio [HR] 3.78, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.96–7.29;P< 0.001) or of PCSM (HR 6.54, 95% CI: 2.16–19.83;P< 0.001).
The researchers then concluded that their findings showed the applicability of Sig24 for the prognosis of metastasis or PCSM after RP, and posited that future studies investigating the combination of Sig24 with available prognostic tests may provide new approaches to improve risk stratification for patients with prostate cancer.
