New Marker For Prostate Cancer Progression

These data are presented in the April 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology.

Prostate cancer is a common malignancy among men over the age of 50. The stage at which prostate cancer is diagnosed is critical for determining prognosis as well as choosing appropriate therapies.

Decreased expression of the marker galectin-3 has been reported to correlate with neoplastic progression in prostate cancer; however, increased levels of galectin-3 have been linked to tumorigenicity in a number of other tumor types. In order to reconcile this difference, Wang et al hypothesized that galectin-3 was cleaved during prostate cancer progression. They identified cleaved galectin-3 in later stage prostate cancer, and determined that reducing levels of galectin-3 inhibited the development of metastatic prostate cancer. Thus, cleaved galectin-3 may serve as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target for prostate cancer progression.

Dr. Raz's group "show[s] that galectin-3 is cleaved during the progression of prostate cancer and might be associated with metastasis, cell growth, and tumorigenicity. … Expression of intact versus cleaved galectin-3 thus might be used as a marker for prognosis of prostate cancer and a therapeutic target for the treatment of prostate cancer."