Health
Personalised meds on way for prostate cancer patients?
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By Sahana Ghosh Kolkata, March 28
Paving the way for
personalised medicine, Indian scientists have identified for the first
time various genetic alterations found in prostate cancer patients in
the country, a development that could aid clinicians diagnose, decide
and select the most effective and precise therapy for the person.
Recently,
renowned Indian film producer D. Ramanaidu, 79, lost a 13-year-old
battle to prostate cancer. Celebrated Hollywood actor Robert De Niro
fought it and so did late South African President Nelson Mandela.
Worldwide,
prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cancer in men. India
has seen a steady increase in cases concomitant with an increase in life
expectancy. According to the National Cancer Registry programme by the
Indian Council of Medical Research, prostate cancer is estimated to go
up by 140 percent in the next few years.
To tackle the growing
threat, researchers are exploring the field of personalised or precision
medicine - the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual
characteristics of each patient instead of the 'one size fits all'
concept.
The idea is that each cancer patient could undergo a
panel of tests for detection and also to figure out what the best
treatment option is, said Bushra Ateeq, lead author of the study and
assistant professor, department of biological sciences and
bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur.
This
entails application of a technology to categorise genetic aberrations
that trigger cancer - a method called molecular profiling - which is
widely used in the US and other Western nations.
"The current
study provides an initial molecular categorisation of prostate cancer in
the patient population. It could aid in clinical decision-making for
the pursuit of surgical, targeted therapy, hormonal and/or chemo and
radiation," Ateeq told IANS over the phone/email.
The study,
titled 'Molecular profiling of ETS and non-ETS aberrations in prostate
cancer patients from northern India', is published in the March 24 issue
of The Prostate journal on March 24. (ETS is a family of genes.)
Ateeq,
an Intermediate Fellow, at the Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance, said
clinicians could categorise the cancer according to the genetic
alterations and administer drugs specific to the pathway that is
involved or activated due to particular genetic changes.
The beauty of the advanced technique lies in its simplicity.
"The process could be done through simple techniques from the urine samples in a cost-effective way," Ateeq said.
For
example, patients displaying rearrangements in the RAF gene (shown to
be five percent in the study) may respond to FDA-approved RAF inhibitory
drugs. The other categories can be tackled likewise.
To carry
out the study, Ateeq and her collaborators - AIIMS, New Delhi; King
George's Medical University, Lucknow; GSVM Medical College, Kanpur; and
the University of Michigan in the US - examined 121 biopsied samples
collected from prostate cancer patients of north India.
In addition, the report highlights similarities in the gene alterations between patients of Indian and Caucasian races.
However,
Indian cohorts differed from Japanese and Chinese patients with regard
to some of the alterations suggesting racial disparity and differences
at the molecular level in prostate cancer.
"Certain human races
are more predisposed to a particular type of genetic alterations in
prostate cancer than other races," Ateeq noted.
Unfortunately,
there is no information available about the factors that trigger a
specific type of genetic rearrangement in prostate cancer.
"However,
in general, living a healthy and active life is good. Healthy eating
habits, such as including fruits, vegetables and Omega-3 fatty acids
(present in fish), in the diet has been linked to a reduced risk of
prostate cancer," Ateeq added.
(Sahana Ghosh can be contacted at [email protected])