On May 3, 2023 Veracyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCYT) reported that data published in the journal Cancer show the ability of a novel gene expression signature to classify prostate cancer into distinct molecular subtypes that may inform which tumors are more likely to respond to different treatments (Press release, Veracyte, MAY 3, 2023, View Source [SID1234630943]). The findings suggest that the novel biomarker, derived largely using Veracyte’s Decipher Genomics Resource for Intelligent Discovery (GRID) database, could potentially enable physicians to further personalize care for their patients with prostate cancer.
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"Prostate cancer is a heterogeneous disease with multiple, available therapeutic approaches in both its early and late stages, and insufficient tools to guide therapeutic selection and sequencing for individual patients," said Edward M. Schaeffer, MD, PhD, chair of Urology at Northwestern University, and senior author on the Cancer manuscript. "Our findings suggest that a molecular subtyping tool based on prostate cancer-specific biological processes could help guide treatment decisions and fuel precision medicine approaches for this disease."
Dr. Schaeffer and colleagues used 32,000 prostate cancer gene expression profiles from Veracyte’s Decipher GRID database to create a prostate subtyping classifier (PSC) model that identified four prostate cancer subtypes with distinct biological and clinical features: luminal differentiated, luminal proliferating, basal immune, and basal neuroendocrine-like. They then used data from 68,547 Decipher GRID profiles, along with those from five additional clinical cohorts, to evaluate the ability of the PSC to provide information about tumor aggressiveness and susceptibility to specific treatments.
The researchers identified many distinct differences within and between the four subtypes in terms of molecular features and pathways, including higher or lower frequency of gene loss and gene mutations that are known to contribute to tumor aggressiveness and/or treatment response. Additionally, the four subtypes demonstrated differences in clinicopathological features such as prostate specific antigen (PSA) values, frequency of non-organ confined disease, lower- or higher-grade disease, tumor aggressiveness, and time to metastasis following radical prostatectomy. Finally, the researchers report associations between individual subtypes and response to specific treatments, such as androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), radiotherapy, and docetaxel chemotherapy, as well as predicted responses to multiple novel systemic therapies.
"These findings reinforce the value of our Decipher GRID database for providing researchers with new insights that could advance understanding about the molecular origins and pathways specific to prostate cancer and their impact on patients’ response to treatment," said Elai Davicioni, Ph.D., Veracyte’s medical director for Urology.
The Decipher GRID database includes more than 100,000 whole-transcriptome profiles from patients with urologic cancers and is used by Veracyte and its research partners to help advance understanding of prostate and other urologic cancers. GRID-derived information is available on a Research Use Only basis to physicians who have ordered the Decipher Prostate Genomic Classifier.