Another report from the Medical College of Georgia identifies a protein called β-arrestin 2 (or βarrestin2) as having lower levels in certain types of prostate cancer cells than in normal prostate cells, while expression of testosterone-stimulated androgen receptors is higher.
Lakshmikanthan et al. reported their findings in the Proceeedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and there is a news report from the Medical College of Georgia that will be easier for most people to follow than the very technical abstract of the paper.
The bottom line is that β-arrestin 2 levels may help to identify the aggressiveness of prostate cancer and therefore may also be useful as a tool to help stage prostate cancer at biopsy. It cannot be used as a marker for initial risk because it can only be isolated from biopsy samples. However, this is all very early stage research and a great deal more data will be needed before we can have a real appreciation of whether levels of this protein can be easily measured and used to improve prognostic information that can help to guide treatment decisions.
Filed under: Diagnosis, Management, Risk Tagged: | Diagnosis, β-arrestin 2, βarrestin2, risk, staging
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