
A group of researchers from the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in Orlando, FL, have found an
RNA biomarker detectable in
prostate cancer patients’
urine and
tissue samples.
There is an unmet need to develop efficient, sensitive and specific biomarkers that allow for an early detection of prostate cancer, this way reducing overtreatment and associated mortality.
The most common prostate cancer screening consists of testing for high concentrations of
prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in blood samples, many times followed by a biopsy to confirm the existence of cancer.
Nonetheless, the PSA test is far from perfect, with the American Urological Association recommending against its routine use back in 2013.
In this study, titled "
Long Noncoding RNAs as Putative Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer Detection", published in the
Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, the research team, led by Ranjan J. Perera, PhD, associate professor and scientific director of Analytical Genomics and Bioinformatics at Sanford-Burnham's Lake Nona campus in Orlando, identif