**Dr Alejandro Rodriguez**

Assistant Professor, Department of Urology University of South Florida, Tampa USA

X Preface

**Scott Eggener, M.D.**

**Matthew Biagioli, M.D.** 

**Kevin Zorn, M.D.** 

Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa

Universite de Montreal, Montreal

**Shahrokh Shariat, M.D., Ph.D.** 

**Dr Alejandro Rodriguez** 

USA

USA

USA

Canada

USA

USA

University of Chicago, Chicago

**Vladimir Mourariev, M.D., Ph.D.** 

Assistant Professor, Department of Urology

Assistant Professor, Department of Urology

Associate Professor, Department of Urology Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York

Assistant Professor, Department of Urology

University of South Florida, Tampa

Department of Urology, University of Cincinnati, Ohio

Assistant Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology

**Part 1** 

**Novel Diagnostic Approaches** 

**Part 1** 

**Novel Diagnostic Approaches** 

**1** 

*France* 

 **Biomarkers of Aggressiveness** 

*CNRS, Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale, Toulouse* 

*Hôpital Rangueil, Service d'Urologie et de Transplantation Rénale, Toulouse* 

Although significant progress in the investigation of prostate cancer biomarkers, some men are overdiagnosed with indolent prostate cancer while others die from aggressive disease diagnosed too late. The introduction of PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) in clinical practice has resulted in early detection and reduced mortality from prostate cancer (Schroder et al., 2009). Despite its great utility for prostate cancer detection and prognostication, PSA as a single test has several limitations. Prostate cancer screening remains thus controversial, because of the risk of overdiagnosis reduced mortality and overtreatment and the inability to detect a significant proportion of aggressive tumors. To extend the limited information provided by PSA testing, other biomarkers that could discriminate between indolent from aggressive cancers are therefore an absolute must. Despite numerous studies of biomarker candidates have been presented the last decade, the identification of the most aggressive subsets of this disease is still not possible. This review will cover last years development in this area and highlight the most promising biomarkers in prostate cancer, which have been

divided into three groups; protein-based, DNA-based and RNA-based markers.

PSCA (Prostate Stem Cell Antigen) is a membrane glycoprotein with 30% homology to stem cell antigen type 2 (SCA-2), an immature lymphocyte cell surface marker. Like SCA-2, PSCA is attached to the membrane by a GPI anchor which can be cleaved by a phospholipase. Because of its homology with SCA-2, PSCA was named inaccurately since it is not a marker for stem cells nor is it uniquely expressed in the prostate (Saeki et al., 2010). Initially, PSCA was identified as a tumor antigen overexpressed in the prostate (Reiter et al., 1998), and subsequent studies have revealed that it is also up-regulated in other cancers including bladder and pancreas. PSCA has been proposed as a promising tumor marker of diagnostic and prognosis, as well as a potential therapeutic target for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. PSCA expression indeed increases with high gleason score, advanced stage and bone metastasis (Gu et al., 2000; Han et al., 2004; Lam et al., 2005; Zhigang & Wenlv, 2004). The levels of PSCA are also amplified in the prostate intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) lesions that

**1. Introduction** 

**2. Protein biomarkers** 

**2.1 Prostate Stem Cell Antigen (PSCA)** 

Cuvillier Olivier and Malavaud Bernard

*Université de Toulouse, UPS, IPBS, Toulouse* 

 **in Prostate Cancer** 
