A new paper from researchers at the University of Santa Cruz and UCLA, just published in the journal Cell, has laid out the beginnings of a method to identify personalizable forms of therapy for men with metastatic forms of prostate cancer.
This new analysis of the genetics and proteomics of metastatic prostate cancer is just a research tool at this stage, but the one of the senior authors is quoted as stating that,
It’s like having a blueprint for each tumor. This is our dream for personalized cancer therapy, so we’re not just guessing any more about which drugs will work but can choose drug targets based on what’s driving that patient’s cancer.
The goal will be to turn a tool like this into something that has practical utility in the clinic.
The abstract of the original paper by Drake et al. can be accessed here. However, most readers might finbd it a good deal easier to follow this media release from the University of Santa Cruz, which does its best to explain the underlying science in simpler terms for the layperson.
Filed under: Living with Prostate Cancer, Management, Treatment | Tagged: analysis, individualized, metastatic, personalized, therapy |
THE "NEW" PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK 
None of this is news. I appreciate the optimism but hidden lines tell us what we already know ~ we are only just beginning to understand the roles of genomics and proteomics of prostate cancer. It will likely take many years to understand the values of this data for translational purposes for individualized care.
We have already seen some therapeutic actions taken through genetic biomarkers but like everywhere else in prostate cancer the data is weak or not truly present.