Cited research: Cancer Cell doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2010.05.026 (2010)

An in-depth genetic analysis has identified several gene alterations associated with prostate cancer.

Charles Sawyers and his colleagues at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York analysed protein expression and the number of copies of genes in 218 prostate-cancer samples, including some that had metastasized to other parts of the body. They also analysed 12 prostate-cancer cell lines and sequenced 157 genes of particular interest from a subset of the samples.

The researchers identified three genes as potential tumour suppressors in some prostate cancers and found that differences in copy number of certain genes indicated clear subgroups of patients with high or low risk of tumour progression. A.K.