• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Cancer

Faster, cheaper test can help predict risk of metastasis in prostate cancer patients

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
December 16, 2018
in Cancer
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
ADVERTISEMENT
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

The Next-Generation Copy Number Alteration (NG-CNA) assay can analyze small amounts of material to estimate metastatic risk, reports The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics

IMAGE

Credit: The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics

Philadelphia, December 12, 2018 – For men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer or patients previously treated, the risk of metastasis is a crucial determinant of whether to choose conservative management or undergo further treatment. For prostate as well as other cancers, primary tumor growth or spread is driven by amplifications or deletions of portions of the genome known as copy number alterations (CNAs). A report in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics describes a new assay to assess CNAs that is cheaper, faster, reproducible, and requires less tissue than other diagnostic techniques and has the potential to significantly enhance prostate cancer evaluation.

Metastases occur in approximately 16 percent of prostate cancers and account for 8 percent of all male cancer deaths. Accurate prediction at the time of diagnosis can identify men at risk for metastasis who would benefit from aggressive therapy. Detection of CNAs in prostate tissue or blood can provide an indication whether previously diagnosed disease has progressed. The amplified and deleted genes represent novel targets for treating aggressive prostate cancer.

“We have demonstrated that CNAs can be detected rapidly and accurately with the new Next-Generation Copy Number Alteration (NG-CNA) assay. The impact of this information is two-fold: to assure aggressive therapy at the time of diagnosis for men with metastasis-prone disease and provide a rationale for active surveillance (and not overtreatment) for men with indolent disease,” explained lead investigator Harry Ostrer, MD, of the Department of Pathology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.

The NG-CNA assay is a targeted amplification sequencing technique that is able to analyze 902 genomic sites belonging to 194 genomic regions. Compared to array comparative genomic hybridization array (CGH), NG-CNA can process samples faster and decrease the cost per sample. “For example, with NG-CNA the cost of DNA extraction, library preparation, and sequencing reagents can be $20 to $40 per sample, compared to nearly $1000 for whole genome sequencing,” said Dr. Ostrer.

In fact, “massively multiplexed assays, like the NG-CNA assay, provide an entry into personalized medicine applications at a fraction of the cost of traditional whole genome sequencing approaches,” added first author Viacheslav Fofanov, PhD, of the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.

Another practical advantage of NG-CNA is that the results are easier to decipher than whole genome sequencing. The new assay allows hundreds to thousands of samples to be processed in a single run, with a typical turn-around time of 36 hours. Samples evaluated with the NG-CNA assay also require less data storage than whole genome sequencing. “This allows our approach to move from large reference laboratories to smaller, more resource-constrained independent laboratories as needed,” added Dr. Ostrer.

A further benefit of the NG-CNA assay is that it can process smaller amounts of material (as low as 12.5 ng) than required by other techniques, allowing cell lines, surgical samples, and biopsies to be analyzed. The CNA approach also provides a single platform onto which other sequencing tests, such as companion diagnostic tests, can be incorporated.

In previous work, the researchers developed the metastatic potential score (MPS) as an indicator of metastatic potential, using data from other measurement techniques. They found the MPS to be highly predictive of prostate cancer, triple negative breast cancer, and lung adenocarcinoma metastases. In the current investigation, NG-CNA assay data were used to compute the MPS in 70 prostate cancer surgical research samples with known clinical outcomes, and the results were highly correlated with that of the Oncoscan CNV assay. In a separate group, clinical and analytical validity was found between surgical samples and matched biopsies run exclusively on the NG-CNA platform. An MPS threshold of 0.99 delineated high risk from low risk tumors.

“We believe the addition of the NG-CNA assay onto a standard cancer gene testing platform will augment personalized medicine by identifying aggressive tumors and genetic mutations that are predictors of response to targeted therapies,” said Dr. Ostrer.

###

Media Contact
Eileen Leahy
[email protected]
732-238-3628

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoldx.2018.07.007

Tags: DiagnosticsMedicine/HealthMolecular BiologyProstate Cancer
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Hepatoblastoma Trends: Dynamic SDI Analysis

July 5, 2025
Noninvasive Nasopharyngeal Cancer Detection via Gene Methylation

Noninvasive Nasopharyngeal Cancer Detection via Gene Methylation

July 5, 2025

Molecular Biomarkers Predicting Adult Glioma Radiosensitivity

July 5, 2025

Aerobic Exercises Combat Fatigue in Colorectal Cancer

July 5, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Blind to the Burn

    Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    59 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • New Organic Photoredox Catalysis System Boosts Efficiency, Drawing Inspiration from Photosynthesis

    54 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • IIT Researchers Unveil Flying Humanoid Robot: A Breakthrough in Robotics

    53 shares
    Share 21 Tweet 13
  • AI Achieves Breakthrough in Drug Discovery by Tackling the True Complexity of Aging

    70 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 18

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Additive Manufacturing of Monolithic Gyroidal Solid Oxide Cells

Machine Learning Uncovers Sorghum’s Complex Mold Resistance

Pathology Multiplexing Revolutionizes Disease Mapping

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.