IRVING, Texas, Nov. 17, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Caris Life Sciences™, Inc., a leading biosciences company focused on enabling precise and personalized healthcare through the highest quality anatomic pathology, molecular profiling, and blood-based diagnostic services, this week presented a clinical poster, "Differences in gene expression between primary chemotherapy-naive prostate carcinomas and hormone-refractory prostate carcinomas," that provides positive results showing molecular profiling's clinical value in helping to inform therapy selection for hormone refractory, or late stage, prostate cancer (HRPCa). The data was derived from a database of more than 25,000 tumors profiled since 2005 across the spectrum of cancers. Transcriptome analysis was done on 14 prostate cancer samples and was presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics: Discovery, Biology and Clinical Applications.
Despite the widespread use of prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening for earlier detection, prostate cancer remains the second leading cause of cancer-related death among men in the United States. Currently there are no effective therapies indicated for end-stage, hormone refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). As a result, it has become imperative to locate biomarker targets and corresponding drug associations for this disease. In this study, differentially expressed genes in primary prostate tumors vs. hormone refractory prostate tumors were studied in order to identify potential therapeutic targets. The study found that platinum based drugs have potential benefit in treatment of HRPCa due to the down regulation of nucleotide excision repair protein ERCC1, while fluoropyrimidines are potentially beneficial due to the lack of thymidylate synthase (TS) protein expression. Further, the heat map-derived signature readily distinguished between prostate cancer specimens from men who were treatment naive vs. hormone refractory with 5 different expression patterns.
"Metastatic, hormone refractory prostate cancer has a grim prognosis and is often lethal," said Dr. Zoran Gatalica, lead author of the study and molecular pathologist at Caris. "Defining the molecular mechanisms underlying the transition of an androgen responsive prostate cancer represents a significant clinical problem, and we are committed to finding relevant therapeutic targets for an individual patient's cancer at the molecular level. The study provides critical evidence that late-stage prostate cancer patients may benefit from a more personalized treatment selection informed by molecular profiling."
Caris offers the world's leading evidence-based molecular profiling service, Caris Target Now, which matches molecular data generated from the individual patient's tumor with biomarker/drug associations from nearly 100,000 published clinical studies that are reviewed and graded by Caris' evidence team of MDs and PhDs. This service provides a simple-to-read report indicating which available chemotherapeutic, biologic and hormone therapies are more likely to be effective, as well as those that are likely to be ineffective, based on published associations in the current scientific literature.
About Caris Life Sciences
Caris Life Sciences, a leading biosciences company, specializes in the development and commercialization of the highest quality anatomic pathology, molecular profiling, and blood-based diagnostic technologies, in the fields of oncology, dermatopathology, hematopathology, gastrointestinal pathology and urologic pathology. The company provides academic-caliber consultations for thousands of patients a day, through its industry-leading team of expert, subspecialty pathologists. Caris also offers advanced molecular analyses of patient samples through prognostic testing services and genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic profiling to assist physicians in their treatment of cancer. Currently, Caris is developing a series of blood tests utilizing the patented Carisome™ platform — a proprietary, blood-based testing technology for diagnosis, prognosis, and theranosis of cancer and other complex diseases. The company is headquartered in the Dallas metroplex, and operates laboratories at the headquarters, as well as in the Phoenix and Boston metro areas.