CEM16: Romanian study identifies two SNPs linked to PCa

Mon, 10 Oct 2016 • Joel Vega

A Romanian study identified two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were linked to a significant risk for high-grade prostate cancer tumours, according to an award-winning poster presented at the 16th Central European Meeting (CEM16) held over the weekend in Vienna.

The study, “Genomic aspects regarding prostate cancer aggressiveness,” won for lead author Bogdan Cheorpeaca and his team from Bucharest, Romania, the first prize for Best Poster given by Berlin Chemie.

The team conducted a genetic study, aimed to identify genetic variants that could predict the outcome of patients with PCam among Romanian patients at Burghele Medical Clinic of Urology (RO) between 2009 and 2011. The study included 990 patients with PCa, histologically confirmed, and 1034 controls (patients admitted for urological conditions, excluding prostate cancer).

To collect personal data and medical history, the researchers used standardized questionnaires. blood DNA samples were analyzed at deCODE Genetics laboratories (Reykjavik, Iceland), using the Illumina Infinium Platform.

“From a panel of over 30 SNPs identified in our study, only 14 were associated with significantly clinico-pathological characteristics of the disease (p<0.05),” reported Cheorpeaca.

More than half of cases had PSA levels >10 ng/ml, and over 70% of cases entered the study with locally advanced tumours staged T3 and T4 (aspects that reveal a lack in population screening), according to the investgators.

From all the 14 SNPs analyzed, two of them (rs1447295 and rs16901979) both situated on 8q24, where found to have significant risk for high-grade tumors (Gleason 8-10) and high-grade clinical stage cTNM at diagnosis. Also SNP rs1447295 was associated with high PSA levels (p:0,01), the study said.

“Discovering genetic variants that distinguish aggressive from nonaggressive forms of prostate cancer is of critical clinical importance for disease prevention and treatment,” the authors said.

“Further identification of other important SNPs, in larger genome-wide association studies and genetic information gained from such analyses have the potential to translate into clinical benefits, including the development of effective strategies for screening, prevention and treatment of PCa,” they added.